I am a self-taught oil painter, specialising in landscapes, especially those of northern England.

Using colour and tone, I try, through the medium of paint, to convey my emotions as I view a landscape that I find beautiful, or dramatic, or imposing. I am never trying to portray a certain object in all its clarity but rather I want to capture the objects as they sit in the landscape by conveying the envelope of light in which they sit. By doing this I can fulfil my aim of allowing the viewer to experience the feelings that inspired me when I was stood in front of the scene.

I use professional quality artists paint as these have the highest pigment load and can provide truer colours. My work is developed in my studio in Otley, using a limited palette, where I use photographs and sketches made at the time to help me capture the form of the landscape. However, once the form and structure is established, I tend to turn away from source material and use the technique of ‘memory painting’ as espoused by painters such as John Carlson. When I am sketching of photographing the scene I intend to paint, I memorise the scene and my feelings – this allows me to remove unnecessary detail and aim for the over-arching motif that attracted me to the scene in the first place,