In the seventies, with the rise of minimalism and conceptual art, and even before with so much non-objective abstract art, I was as a young artist frequently amazed by the way so much establishment-sanctioned, extolled high art looked like ordinary things.
I have always wanted my art to be explicitly figurative and transformational. As a sculptor my intention is to turn metal into flesh. As a draughtsman and painter I attempt to create live illusions with economy of means. This is not to say that abstraction needs to be avoided–I love the way Cezanne and Soutine (for example) created credible subject matter and maintained the spontaneity and integrity of their brushstrokes. I adore the vitality of artists like Goya, Gericault, Church, Corot, Homer, Spencer, Hopper and Kossoff.
I draw and paint only from life, or outdoors, not from photographs. Paintings and drawings from photos generally look like paintings and drawings from photos. Actual light reveals the truth. It has always been my intention to create work which either lives on the wall or breathes in its space.
