I am interested in painting people, and it is the one thing that time and time again captures my imagination. I try to focus on how I can work each facet of the skin, each crease around the eyes, all the elements that define how we recognize a person and how I can manipulate the paint to build a gestured construction of the human form. I am not interested in representing a figure exactly how it is, I am fascinated with working in a painterly manner to build up the form, leaving some areas sparse with little paint and then others more built up. I think it makes the painting more interesting aesthetically but also give the figures more vitality. I try to make every mark matter when painting; I find it fascinating to really concentrate on the marks and to see how little paint can cause a coherent interpretation of the image. I also find that working quickly helps me to achieve this. I try to avoid a laboured look and make the marks more instinctive and so my initial response is still apparent in the painting.

I am very interested in capturing the presence of people and I continually experiment with ways of making the paint work in this manner. When photographing my subject matter I take a large number of photos and try to avoid setting up the scene, even though fundamentally the sitting in itself has been planned, I find that the images I find most interesting are the ones where the sitter has done something unexpected or glanced in a way which begins to reveal something about themselves. I am interested in creating a psychological aspect which anyone can relate to. At times I am also drawn by just how interesting a face can be, whether or not there is an emotional connection; it can just be enough to be able to scrutinize another human being and focus on all the details of their face, the way the light hits the face and the composition of the image also affects my decision making dramatically.

I am continually inspired when observing people, and I feel the need to translate what I find interesting into paint. I love capturing a moment when you think you have discovered a vulnerability or an insight into someone's character. I have not by any means mastered this yet but I continually strive to.