Biography

Painting has always been the quiet pulse of my life - a constant rhythm beneath everything I've done.  Though my professional path first led me into journalism and I graduated with a degree in English, the pull of painting never left me.  Over time, what began as a passion has become the heart of what I do - the language through which I make sense of the world.

Every painting I create begins with drawing.  I spend long hours sketching in the landscape, letting the shapes, light and silence seep into my lines.  Back in the studio, these sketches become seeds - each one feeding and shaping the next stage of the painting until, almost unexpectedly, a fragment of the original moment is caught and the subject takes on a life of its own. I often work on several canvasses at once, moving between them as if in conversation, allowing ideas to evolve organically. Eventually the memory of a place transforms into its own presence.

Landscapes are the heartbeat of my work. I am endlessly fascinated by horizons - the wide, open sweep of fields, the stillness of cypress trees standing like sentinels, and the gentle layering of land that draws the eye towards the distance.  These vistas come alive in my paintings, sometimes through abstract gestures, sometimes through figurative interpretations. Even in my most abstract pieces, there is always a memory of place - often the rugged lines of the Alpilles, visible from my studio in Provence, anchoring the work in tangible geography.

Colour is my compass.  I record colour notes on every sketch - soft dawns, the sharp glint of midday sun, the gentle blur of twilight. These become my map when I paint, guiding the transformation from line to atmosphere.  Oils lend depth and richness, transparent acrylic washes reveal the shifting layers of land.  Toward the end, I add mixed media - traces of texture that give the surface a tactile life of its own.

Alongside landscapes, the human form plays a central role in my practice. Painting nudes demands acute sensitivity - the careful observation required to translate the living form onto canvas sharpens my eye which informs all aspects of my work. Whether capturing a figure or a field, I am always searching for that same pulse of life - finding that brief, luminous point where observation turns into feeling and the painting begins to breathe.