NAVIGATE

I have been a painter all my life. I painted and drew possibly because I am the eldest in a family of 5 very noisy children. Art was an escape from, what seemed to be the chaos of my siblings. So I learnt to experience the world through colour and textures. After portraits, reflections always fascinated me. I began exhibiting at 16 years of age and at the age of 21, having completed a college education in the arts, began working.

Initially my area of interest was realism but eventually I began to explore more creative expressions. My work became looser and more powerful. More based on the impression created by the person and environment rather than strictly their fixed appearance. I began to notice certain phenomena while I was working and practiced exploring different states of mind while painting. This is ongoing and I've discovered for myself new ways of looking at things while painting. Certain subjects and events seem to cause a shift in my mental state while painting. They cause an inner dialogue while in the act which carries me effortlessly to the conclusion of the work. In other instances there is a nothingness that comes with the work. It's a calm almost out of body sensation where I am aware of my thoughts almost as thought they were belonging to another person. I am simply painting while in that state and everything seems to go at a different pace to normal. Clock time slows down but to someone on the outside it seems to them as though I am simply painting very quickly. There is also an element of not being in control of the process. The hand seems to know what to do and do it very well. I simply observe the process of events.

I have lived in Paris since 2003 and expanded my education in arts here. Since arriving I've had several exhibitions and have trained with Jorge Hermle and Thimy Leab.

At present I create all my own paints, grinding natural pigments and mixing them with oils. Many of the methods I use are unknown outside a small group of artists practicing traditional methods that go back hundreds of years. I am exploring constantly. Drawing is at the core of my motivation & ideas, concepts and designs naturally flow from that.