It wasn’t until 1999 that I decided to enter the fine art market and approached Washing Green with my portfolio. Since joining them they have published over 40 of my designs and are currently developing some of my art into sculpture.

I’m naturally a shy person and find it difficult to articulate my thoughts verbally. When I’m put on the spot and asked to explain my work, I usually end up a gibbering wreck, cursing myself later for my lack of verbal dexterity. My true personality reveals itself through my paintings.

Many of my paintings are about good and evil – innocence and malevolence. When I was a child I remember believing what a wonderful and happy place the world was. I loved to learn about other people in other countries and wanted to visit them all. Of course, I now realize things aren’t quite as I once imagined, and the once distant places where I wanted to be are not so far away; they are actually on my doorstep. The people I wanted to meet are locked in a bitter hatred of each other, divided by race or religion. The world is a place where the innocent pay the heaviest price. It affects me deeply. It’s like living in the Garden of Good and Evil. I can’t ignore it, so I depict it in the form of these innocent pictures. I leave it to the individual to look at my paintings and choose what they would like to see, innocence or malevolence – the ‘good’ or the ‘evil’.

Above all else I am, and always will be, an eternal optimist. Optimism is one of the greatest gifts we possess. When I think about it, I think of the songs ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting – the lyrics sum it up!

These two opposing juxtapositions ultimately explain many of my paintings. Look a the ones which have malevolent titles – mainly the evil cats. To me they are representations of evil. However, at first glace, the impression they exude is optimism. The wide-eyed cats and dogs always look petrified and are representations of the innocent. You can choose to see these paintings any way you like. See love and happiness or death and the Devil, it doesn’t matter so long as you see something and connect with it.

This is where I draw a connection between these paintings and my abstract paintings. I would like you to see whatever you see! You get the most from a painting if it connects with you. When you look at an abstract painting, you can see nothing, or you can see it all – it’s either for you, or it isn’t! For me, this simple philosophy sums up what is art and what is not – you either like it or you don’t! My paintings are from my soul and I hope, honest!

Before I begin a painting, I start with a very rough preliminary colour sketch, which I may have done weeks or months ago, I keep my sketches along with notes and ideas in dozens of sketchbooks. The books are overstuffed with ragged bits of paper containing those ‘thoughts’ that just pop into your head un-announced at the strangest times.

With the aid of my sketches, I know exactly what I’m going to paint when I’ve pinned up my canvas. It is very spontaneous. I have all my colours pre-determined. I use solid oil bars directly onto canvas, manipulating the paint with my fingers using no brushes. The paint reacts with the heat from my fingers and the more you work it, the more fluid it becomes. It’s a wonderful and unusual medium to work with.