Artist Statement
I used to paint wholly from my meditations, catching seeds of experiences that are often lucid adventures, gifted by grace, allowing me glimpses into unseen vast oceans of love. They provide a tray of seeds that I can plant repeatedly, grounded in colour and light. The painting process continues and widens the experience with more light coming, often in a lyrical way as a symphony, directing me to add, remove, shift, or go to bed to dream some more painting when I’m stuck; or take a walk in the bush to breathe and fill my senses and soul.
Nature has started to become the waking dream in my work. Luminosity and colour have become the main subject matter and form is secondary. Lost and found edges reflect the permeable nature of our own self. We are beings of light that are part of community, seen and unseen…and when I forget this oneness, this is where the pain dwells.
So, I try and paint this prayer of love that I am often gifted in my life.
There have been painting allies to inform my expressions in oil, acrylic and pastels. Wolf Kahn and Bonnard have inspired my palette and Odilon Redon, where colour and line make his inner worlds visible. My first mentor Michael Challen taught me to find luminosity with oils.
I have deep compassion for soul’s journey and how illuminating and incredibly tough it can be. I want to hold people in my paintings and remind them that they are loved; that there are places of infinite peace to be found, that there is a centre within us all that is stable and full of wisdom and joy. That we are more than interconnected. That we have vast consciousness that when found, heals not only ourselves, but our planet.