I have a background in the natural sciences and animal behaviour and thus animals figure predominantly in my work. Birds seem to dominate but almost anything that catches my eye or mind may prove fodder for a sketch or painting. My animals tend to express both their “self” and their “context”. As themselves I see them acting as the creatures they are intended to be – unfettered and sensing. A dog snarls, a weasel moves with stealth, birds forage, observe, dive or stand in the rain. As contextual beings the state of being “in relation to” automatically makes animals ecological. Contexts such as a public park, a melting iceberg, the defense of territory, observing humans in a park, foraging on a frozen lake, all suggest that the anthropocene is both binding and dissolving – never far from the painted surface.
