’I feel there is a danger of modern painting becoming shallow and dehumanised, too concerned with aesthetics, too elitist and lacking in human content. With this in mind, I try to create works which have a magic presence and tension; the first is often present in the art of children.

I try also to make my painting work on as many levels as possible, and my compositions are chosen for their formal qualities which help to create a certain mood and present an idea. It is statements of an idea that I am making, rather than statements of perception. I try to create the essence of my subject, the exact shape, the final shape that works. The paintings, therefore, have a reality of their own tensions and contrasts, and do not mirror nature. The spiritual intention has absolute precedence over an optically exact rendering of nature.