My work represents a journey taken over 30 years. I started as a painter working with bold flat colours and hard edges. Then I began adding texture, eventually becoming more daring - scratching, rubbing and sanding. The deconstruction of the surface became an integral part of the work and my fascination with materials was born.
At this time I started making card structures, sometimes landscape based, sometimes like unearthed machinery that has been buried for years. These pieces were splatter painted using a tooth brush, building up many layers and colours, achieving a stone like quality. For a long time I also made wooden nail artworks, inspired by Stanley Spencer's monumental painting 'The Crucifixion' - and the nail form still occasionally crops up in my work today.
The reliefs were pivotal as they encouraged experimentation. I first began using copper wire thanks to a car boot sale find, initially using it to bond objects together but now I also use it as a sewn line, pricking and back-stitching.
My body of work combines many materials: some found, some made, some altered. Textures fascinate me. I often work with paint fragments - a by-product of my day job as a decorator - which I shape or thread with wire. For nearly two years I worked with calcified water which had formed on the inside of an immersion heater. The material was brittle but so beautiful, with an array of subtle colours.
At this time I started making card structures, sometimes landscape based, sometimes like unearthed machinery that has been buried for years. These pieces were splatter painted using a tooth brush, building up many layers and colours, achieving a stone like quality. For a long time I also made wooden nail artworks, inspired by Stanley Spencer's monumental painting 'The Crucifixion' - and the nail form still occasionally crops up in my work today.
The reliefs were pivotal as they encouraged experimentation. I first began using copper wire thanks to a car boot sale find, initially using it to bond objects together but now I also use it as a sewn line, pricking and back-stitching.
My body of work combines many materials: some found, some made, some altered. Textures fascinate me. I often work with paint fragments - a by-product of my day job as a decorator - which I shape or thread with wire. For nearly two years I worked with calcified water which had formed on the inside of an immersion heater. The material was brittle but so beautiful, with an array of subtle colours.
The found materials I use in my sculptures come from many different sources, including scrap yards and skips, which I love to explore. My current work has ancestors, rather like a family tree, but each sculpture has the confidence to stand tall and proud on its own. For me, the creative journey is one of progression. There are no rules, no barriers, just the excitement of not knowing where the road will lead.