Because I rely on my deep unconscious for inspiration, I can’t draw directly onto paper at the start. Instead, I create abstract marks and splodges to gaze into and use these to stimulate my imagination. This lets me get started and very soon a story begins to unfold. I then develop this further by adding characters and backgrounds.
If done properly, this process is hugely random, so to gain some sort of order, I then create an overarching pattern to fit the story into. As I work, I am strongly influenced by the bright colours and simple outlines of naïve artists but, unlike them, I often show the more compulsive and sinister aspects of human nature. But, because I don’t see everything in the world as doom and gloom, I like to do this with a bit of humour.
With this way of working the picture ends up with a complex juxtaposition of conflicting vignettes (much like characters in a book). The viewer then needs to come up close and read each separate scene like the unfolding of a story. But, unlike writing, there is no particular order to them, resulting in a complex, interactive experience.
I run each morning in the countryside with my dogs.
These are my first two Lurchers Max and Minnie . . . . .
. . . . . and these two my latest dogs Meg and Pearl.