My work is concerned with nature and the inspiration for my current body of work began with my garden, although this has now developed to include other natural elements. The research for my paintings comes from the hundreds of photographs that I take of the natural world around me.

When I go for a walk, when I’m on holiday or even in the garden I use the camera to jot down what I see. I then use the photographs as a basis for my paintings. I want to capture detail, to examine these things that have caught my attention. So the work also becomes about the whole process of making. I like looking and describing, using the images to explore the dynamics of translating from one medium into another as I do with a photograph into a painting.

To do this means you have to really understand what you are looking at; decode it, break it down, plus you have to have a good knowledge of the new language that you’re translating into i.e. the painting language. I paint in oils and have a meticulous way of working; the finished paintings are acutely observed and realistically rendered. Although my paintings have a photographic look they are never truly faithful reproductions of the photograph, I feel they depict a heightened reality.