I’ve spent my life immersed in performance, education, creativity and art.
For three decades that mainly meant theatre: I performed, directed shows and taught all around the world.
It was an extraordinary time - though there was a cost. I burned out and encountered serious ill-health.
Now, recovered, I live in remote Ireland - in a tumble-down house near the sea.
My focus is writing, coaching and painting.
I’m growing a forest in my garden. There’s over a hundred trees now, and thick hedgerows laden with berries shelter the birds.
I paint to create calm and space - in my mind and in the world. My dearest hope is that you’ll want to pause for a few moments with these paintings and remember how wonderful this world can be.
Artist’s Statement
Painting is practical and physical - a conversation between my body and the materials I work with.
It's an investigation into physical choices: different ways of applying ink or paint, different gestures, different consistencies of ink and paint, different sorts of paper.
To paint I must calm my mind and relax my body. I open myself to the materials, the tools, and the surface I’m working on. If I’m distracted, the work I create will be unfocused or superficial.
Painting is a mental discipline as much as a physical one.
Painting, like performance (my previous career) combines fearless creation with spontaneous editing. Anything is possible. Not everything is useful.
I never know how a finished painting will look when I start it. Painting is a conversation between me and the materials.
I don’t finish a painting. The viewer does. I don’t control a viewer’s response. I’ve completed my work when the ink has dried and the picture is framed.
I hope you experience the calm, curiosity and humanity of my process, but that’s not within my control.
Respectfully, I leave it up to you.