Welcome to my website. I am delighted for you to see and, I hope, enjoy my work.
My journey on to the canvas began in 1993 when my youngest son eventually went to school. This was my chance to find out if I could paint.
I really like a challenge….there is no point in trying to do something that you know you can do.
In the beginning I worked with charcoal and pastel. I drew everything. If there was a child at home ill I drew him. I still have a drawing of ‘poor Peter’ lying on the sofa with chicken pox.
Then I discovered the thrill of oil paint. This medium added a new dimension to my work and the way I see.
Now I want to paint everything.
My painting all start with a response to a visual experience,
I photograph sketch and make notes. The images evolve in my head and at some point I know it’s the time to start painting. This process cannot be forced. Sometime it takes 2 weeks sometimes 6 months.
The Chinese New Year series was inspired by a trip to the dragon dance in China Town in Bangkok.
The onslaught of noise, colour and light was astonishing against the inky black night sky. I am powerfully motivation by the way light plays on form.
Here were hundreds of shapes dancing in light. It was invigorating not only because if it’s total lack of subtlety but because the challenge was there. Could the essence of noise and crashing light of the scene be put on canvas?
Most of the paintings were done on a black canvas. In several of the paintings I used the wooden end of a brush to create the effect of the movement of the light on the dancers and drummers, the way the dancers moved to and into the light. I spent many hours scribbling my way across the canvases.
The scribbling effect is probably more obvious on the white canvases of the drummers. I wanted the effect of them dancing straight off the canvas, as they had paraded past me. I can still hear the music when I look at these canvases. I still feel the elation I felt when I was doing them.
In broad contrast are the paintings of the monk ordination ceremony at Wat pak nam.
Whilst watching a friends son being ordained into the monk hood in this old Thonburi Temple, I was awash with the peace and stillness of the occasion. The light was the inspirational catalyst for these paintings.
The contrast of the shimmering gold background of the Giant Buddha against the dull orange robes of the new monks was stunning.
Although there is one painting of monks faces, which was inspired by an old monk wearing a pair of crooked spectacles… hence I the title “I can see clearly now”, essentially the monks themselves were irrelevant.
These two series of painting were about creating thunderous light and the resonance of silent light. That light is boisterous, but also has eloquence.
Over the years I have painted many portraits in pastel, oil and acrylic. I started them initially because I thought I couldn’t do them ……Wow I was right!!! They were awful. But the human face, all around us, young, old handsome, ugly is fascinating, I had to persevere, still have to. The fluidity of the face is what interests me the most.
If you are ever out and about in Bangkok and find yourself being started at by a mad looking farang, don’t be scared. Its possibly me and I probably want to paint your face.
