Music is a major influence on my work. I create visual representations of music and sound in colour, inspired by my experiences of the phenomenon of sound-colour synaesthesia.
There are many types of synaesthesia, a phenomenon in which a stimulus to one sense consistently and uniquely evokes automatic, conscious perceptions in a different sense. When listening to music, I perceive notes of the musical scale as specific colours. In my spare time, I play the violin and viola; this provides some of the choices of music for my paintings but I am also inspired by the wide range of music I listen to.
My abstract paintings are geometric (patterns of transcribed music or recorded sounds), expressive (instinctive synaesthetic responses made by manipulating the colours on the paper or canvas whilst listening to the music), and occasionally combinations of these styles.
In 2023-24 I undertook a 6 month, part-time residency with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres. This was a standalone project exploring the contrasting internal and external architecture and public spaces of both theatres, combined with my unique experiences of being in those spaces, and I created a series of paintings which are colourful, semi-abstracted yet recognisable images of the interiors and exteriors of the Everyman and Playhouse.
I am also inspired by skylines and other structures in the landscape, from complex cityscapes to rock formations or man-made structures such as a bridge dominating a horizon; however I choose to omit much of their detail and represent these as simplified forms.
In 2011 I won Merseytravel’s Art on the Network competition ‘Design a New Skyline’, for the Queensway (Birkenhead) Tunnel. My ‘Liverpool Composition’ and ‘Wirral Composition’ designs were made into murals on the new cladding, approximately 5m high and 22m wide, and are public artworks on permanent display at each end of the tunnel.
Limited edition prints are available of my original acrylic paintings 'Liverpool Composition' and 'Wirral Composition', based on the designs for the murals in the Birkenhead Tunnel, and the more recent work 'Mersey Composition', based on the view along the Mersey from New Brighton.
There are many types of synaesthesia, a phenomenon in which a stimulus to one sense consistently and uniquely evokes automatic, conscious perceptions in a different sense. When listening to music, I perceive notes of the musical scale as specific colours. In my spare time, I play the violin and viola; this provides some of the choices of music for my paintings but I am also inspired by the wide range of music I listen to.
My abstract paintings are geometric (patterns of transcribed music or recorded sounds), expressive (instinctive synaesthetic responses made by manipulating the colours on the paper or canvas whilst listening to the music), and occasionally combinations of these styles.
In 2023-24 I undertook a 6 month, part-time residency with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres. This was a standalone project exploring the contrasting internal and external architecture and public spaces of both theatres, combined with my unique experiences of being in those spaces, and I created a series of paintings which are colourful, semi-abstracted yet recognisable images of the interiors and exteriors of the Everyman and Playhouse.
I am also inspired by skylines and other structures in the landscape, from complex cityscapes to rock formations or man-made structures such as a bridge dominating a horizon; however I choose to omit much of their detail and represent these as simplified forms.
In 2011 I won Merseytravel’s Art on the Network competition ‘Design a New Skyline’, for the Queensway (Birkenhead) Tunnel. My ‘Liverpool Composition’ and ‘Wirral Composition’ designs were made into murals on the new cladding, approximately 5m high and 22m wide, and are public artworks on permanent display at each end of the tunnel.
Limited edition prints are available of my original acrylic paintings 'Liverpool Composition' and 'Wirral Composition', based on the designs for the murals in the Birkenhead Tunnel, and the more recent work 'Mersey Composition', based on the view along the Mersey from New Brighton.
