And as I was devising my artist’s statement the other day, I thought I’d share the official description of what my most recent paintings have been about…

My work explores people, animals and places that lead the viewer towards a mystical unknown. My subject matter is inspired by rituals, superstitions and religious folklore, originally popularised by devotional art and stories passed down the generations. These tales, though evolved from their origins, take new forms and are retold through contemporary mediums on the internet. Through searching the masses of files uploaded onto sites such as YouTube and Flickr one can still see these glimpses of mystical themes excitedly shared between members. It’s the persistent way that these themes still continue to resurface, despite our common desire in the West to free ourselves from superstition, that I find interesting. I paint the need and desire to perpetuate these beliefs and practices, appropriating places and ideas, found, from other people’s images and stills that were shared and uploaded into the etha. My work is not loaded with obvious metaphors but I aim to explore an ambiguous beauty that draws the viewer into a retreat from the absolutes of life.

Tracyanne was looking for something wintry with a touch of the bleak so unsurprisingly I wanted to avoid the usual seasonal cliche’s. The idea behind The Blizzard artwork came to me from looking at 1950’s style Christmas cards of perfect houses and drives and snowy scenes. However, the song is actually a Jim Reeves cover and it’s weirdly sad. It’s about a man trying to get through a blizzard on his horse and trap, home to his love but doesn’t quite make it and freezes to death. So I wanted to portray a mix of this perfect little Christmas scene, but with a lonely Mary-Anne, waiting inside, lights on, not realising her love will never come home.

As it’s a split single, I did artwork for both sides. I wanted each side to look good independently but also to work well as a pair. I have to admit I’m pretty pleased with the results.

Follow the link if you’re interested in buying the single.