As an artist I am always looking for new and different ways to challenge myself. My style is very much something that developed in a natural way. Although I consider myself a portrait painter – and portraiture makes up the body of my portfolio – I also seek other ways to stretch myself by looking at and capturing the landscape around me.

My palette may appear limited to black and white, but I find that by painting in monochrome it encourages form to develop and appear without controlling how the eye should see it. Shape is suggested without outline, and provides the viewer with a greater impression of depth and dimension.

Finished works take on a photographic quality, but one which is both deceptive and convincing in equal measure. When painting a portrait, I like to meet my subject and sketch from life where possible in order to gain a better impression of personality and demeanour.  Few people can afford the time to sit for a portrait nowadays and so I often work from photographs.

After working as a kitchen design assistant in both Somerset and London, I returned to Suffolk in 2007 to seek a change of direction. Having discovered what that was, I am now fulfilling my ambition to exhibit and sell my work.