a story

When I paint I am looking for ways to represent my encounters with the beauty and power of the natural landscape. My intention is to find visual equivalents for the sensual, aural, and other, primarily non-visual experiential qualities encountered. This wish to paint as a homage to the environment led me to choose recycled and eco-friendly materials, and also introduce new subject matter such as places currently threatened by environmental issues. It is important that the scenes I depict are a recollection of my experience and feelings towards an occasion which is still fresh in my memory. Consequently for my MA project, I am visiting areas around London and Surrey, where I am living at the moment, which either show signs of people's efforts (or lack thereof) towards sustainable projects, or occasions where the effects of climate change are visible, ie. flooding and unusual weather.

My main case study is the proposed third runway at Heathrow. I have focussed on the existing airport and the awkward way in which its machines, lights and buildings clash with the surrounding nature, and also the village of Sipson, which will be obliterated if the build goes ahead. To inform my work I am attending lectures and protests about climate change, studying artists and musicians with similar principals, and I have spoken to several members of Greenpeace, who have bought a plot of land in Sipson, with the intention of making it difficult for BAA to force a sale. My painting is therefore an attempt to connect the visual and culturally familiar experience of the landscape with its visceral, reflexive equivalent, so that the viewer can identify with the pleasures of the existing but endangered 'great outdoors', and also become more aware of issues which imperil our fragile and beautiful planet.