After an early upbringing in Africa (Kenya), I have lived in the UK for most of my life and now I am in Australia. I try to take a humanist perspective with my artwork. I feel this world is a facing an huge imbalance and huge changes. A concern of mine is that toxic masculinity, driven by certain cultures, is causing significant harm to women and girls in many places in the world. As a male artist, I believe men need to stand up against those other men who destroy in the name of their ideology, radical religious and political ideas or other misguided thinking. If there is to be a world spirituality, it needs to be centred on the Divine with a more feminine expression in order to bring balance. I ultimately believe the Divine is genderless, however for humans with our blinkered vision, we often need things to have a form. The Divine feminine has traditionally been a wise expression that brings justice and balance, awareness of the environment, the land, the soil, the oceans and all living creatures. Most religious art has been masculine.
Artistically, I am fascinated with the interplay of light and shade, chiaroscuro, form and people’s faces.
I consider some of my art to be, perhaps, pagan and coming from a raw essence of spirituality.
I taught art groups at a mental health hospital for several years and my own painting work grew out of this. There is something alchemical about helping others to bring out their inner artist while making one’s own work. Sharing the space with people who are healing through art is a moving experience.
Pic below: when Grayson Perry visited the studio! Truly honoured! 😊
