In over a decade of working in restoration and specialist decorating I have always carried a love of painting. Moving to the Outer Hebrides in 2019 gave me the environment for pursuing this, both with inspiration and time. Being based on a remote island removed many of the distractions I had previously felt.

My work is about the material and feeling. I like to work quickly to catch a response combined with a loose way of mark making that comes from a background of technical processes from working in decorative finishing. I like the final effect to be highly emotional, strong and full of feeling. It comes from an authentic experience of moving in a natural environment. Kayaking, walking and swimming in and around these islands provides me with multiple views and experiences of how I feel and see. I love to play, to work out processes and techniques that underpin the loose fast final pieces. There is a juxtaposition of fast and slow, thoughtful and responsive, dreaming and drama.

My inspiration almost always comes from colour and texture I see around me in the natural environment. I look at the forces and power at work in this rocky Hebridean landscape. I often feel profoundly effected by this, it is both a soothing greater power and also deeply unsettling dramatic energy at play. My creative human reaction to seeing this phenomenon is to mirror it, play with it, work out material responses that connects me to what I see. A conversation with the Earth and a joyful uniting.

Matter and material are very important to me, it is a layer between ourselves and the world we live in. It has the power to seal us from certain elements of earth and connect and reassure us in our environment and sense of place.