In my urban landscapes I am interested in the contrast between the old and the new and in the drama of light and shadow.  The abstract shapes they create fascinate me.  I also explore the isolation and loneliness of the individual in the urban environment and there is often a sense of stillness, suspense or foreboding.  Particular views are selected because they elicit an emotional response in me.  Thus, what at one level may appear to be a realistic depiction of a particular place or building is really an attempt to capture my response to the environment around me and to explore my inner feelings and emotions.

In my night paintings I am excited by the way street lights, brightly lit shop fronts and neon lights accentuate the contrasts between night and dark and how the night also adds an extra dimension of mystery and uncertainty to familiar places and turns them into liminal spaces. I also find that I am increasingly drawn to places where buildings and lights are reflected in water and how the contrast of the solid built objects lose their definition and certainty when reflected.

My still lifes are a meditation on the inter connectedness of things. What interests me is not so much the individual objects but how each gains meaning and value through its connection with other objects. Developing each painting is a search to find a composition where the whole becomes something that is more and different from the individual parts and which satisfies me aesthetically and emotionally. The fact that the paintings are based on objects that I have acquired or have been given to me by family and friends over many years adds meaning to them for me. Of course, the paintings are also, as in my urban landscapes, an examination of the impact of light on the side of structures and how that connects and brings them alive. At another level the paintings are an exploration of the essentially abstract nature of painting. They are a search for a combination and balance of shapes, and tones and colours that reflect my feelings and emotions.

Artists who have particularly inspired and influenced my work include: Algernon Newton, Edward Hopper, Georgio Morandi, Mark Rothko, Vilhelm Hammershoi, Mary Burke and Eithne Carr.