Artist Statement:
There is something very special about the cinematic experience that effects us so strongly. It is a world that exists in parallel to our own, impersonating reality in every superficial way, but more intensely; “it makes the world more than it is”. (Gilbert-Rolfe)

This work acts principally as mediation. Derived from film imagery, these paintings deal with our perceptions of this illusionistic film world and question the truth of the scene presented. The film world turns reality into a set or stage. Even the most rigid of structures can be reconstituted through photography and filmic devices. Through this filtering of information an image is removed further and further from its origin and is allowed to take on an identity of its own.

Colour relationships are a key factor in this work as the paintings deal with lighting and atmosphere. The issue of brightness and how to convey claustrophobic interiors, the purity of external light or the glow of artificial lighting are challenging painterly concerns. By constructing the paintings with hue relationships, rather than tonal ones, there is a greater sense of colour-field and radiance, so that the image has to come through the colour. Glazes of transparent pigment are layered to create the fluidity and vibrancy of film. It is as much about the materiality of celluloid as the seductive streaming of images. By building up the layers in this way, the paintings mimic the developing process of photographic prints. It is the reverse of bleaching a photograph yet has the same effect of striping down the components and deconstructing the image.

It is important that the scenes feel like moments in time that have events that precede and follow. They feature doorways and windows that offer a space beyond. There are usually ways of entering or exiting the scene that give a kind of labyrinth or maze feel to the work as the stairs and doors do not lead anywhere, they are merely facades. These ambiguous spaces are each composed of elements that relate to our understanding of space, but information is held back so that they are open to interpretation; the precise reading may differ from viewer to viewer.

Audience participation is integral to these paintings. The economy with which they are made invites the viewers to piece the forms and shapes together in order to construct the scene for themselves. Where the paintings work best, nothing is definite, so the image is allowed to slowly infuse in to the viewers’ comprehension. There is an initial impact of colour, but then there are subtleties that develop when your eyes adjust, as if going into a darkened room, the information seems to unravel with time. However, scrutinising the paintings does not present further detail at all. They act as a signifier of the scene, not a description.

Publications:
The Power of Art, Yvonne Gordon Wandsworth, The Guardian
Overturner, John Ezard, The Guardian
Young Briton lands new European painters' prize, John Ezard, The Guardian
Painters target the Turner, John Ezard, The Guardian

Exhibitions:
2003
Vertigo Gallery, London
Launch Exhibition, Lang Gallery, London
Flinch, SevenSeven Contemporary Art Broadway
Urban Interiors, Twist Art & Design Commonwealth Institute, London
nth-Art, Ols & Co, London
Arrivals, Pump House Gallery, London
Lexmark European Art Prize, Eyestorm Gallery, London
Paperwork, Vrtigo Gallery, London
The Great Game, Century Gallery, London

2002
The State of the House, Korean Ambassador's Residency, London
Diversion, Arch 295, LondonRecent Paintings, Lincolnshire