Artist Statement

In the studio painting memories of my divesMy paintings often begin while I’m diving and submerged in the water world. A dive site will slowly reveal its details and character to you much like a person. Certain details come into and out of focus and I start to see the beauty of these spaces as compositions - the fluidity of water, the reflection of light, the illumination of coral covered wrecks or capturing the colourful marine life. I’m inspired by the variety and richness of life underwater; of the evidence of how our planet was shaped. For me, it’s not so much about capturing the realism of the scenes as the feeling of experiencing the colour, richness of light and the wonder of such places.

I often have my GoPro with me on dives and take video. Once I'm back in the studio, I review my notes from the dives and watch the videos to pick out key moments or features of the dive site. I translate this into acrylic paint on canvas or board. 

I explore three main subjects (primarily because I dive three main types of dive sites) - shipwrecks and the sometimes haunting stories they tell, reefs and their abundance of life, and caves and the beauty of the rocks revealing how they were formed. My work focuses on the idea of transformation, formation and reclamation in these places - the power of water and how it can alter anything that enters its world and isn't of its world.