All artists are on a journey — constantly searching beyond the obvious for some understanding of what, where and why they create. Through years in the studio my work has evolved from mostly figurative to Symbolic Expressionism and this is my path for … well years to come. Symbolic Expressionism holds within it abstraction, but pure abstraction can easily become chaos, and chaos alone is not enough. There has to be something that anchors the painting — something the eye and emotions can return to in order to make sense of the experience.

For some artists, like Jackson Pollock, colour, rhythm and depth became that anchor. In my work, it is often the figure. The human presence allows the viewer to move through the painting emotionally, navigating the tension between abstraction and recognition.

The challenge for the artist is knowing how far to go into abstraction before instinct tells you to stop — that moment when the painting finally feels complete. Go too far, and you risk losing the very thing you were trying to say. For me, abstraction is not about abandoning meaning. It is about allowing feeling, memory and instinct to emerge beyond literal representation — finding order, emotion and humanity within the chaos. And, always, letting the brush lead the way.