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Journeyboy

Thoughts and reflections from the artist.

"The possession of colours is not given to everybody."

As well as landscape being a major influence upon and within my paintings, a more immediate source of inspiration is music - Dub Reggae with its expanding space and echo; Brian Eno's "treatments" and ambient works; The Stone Roses' upbeat, South Manchester songs and the wonderfully discordant / harmonious sonic textures of Wire - they've all painted more pictures in my head than me - and left me wanting to be sharper.

I combine music with personal feelings and friendships - these all tinge, sometimes saturate each painting with religiosity and symbolism; the combination of colours juxtapositioned with subjects, when viewed as a series can spark off thought along spiritual lines. I'm aiming at developing this to a greater and deeper intensity.

Human experience is the source of all my works; basic humanity in its raw harsh colourful existence, yet my primary reason for painting comes from deeper within; this is my way of surviving the cruel, careless and carefree. This instinct is inherent within from millenia ago - when humans made churches within caves, to worship and revere, to paint the animals they lived amongst and upon whom their survival depended.

Our ancestors punctured the landscape within their own psyches when they entered the caves - they went deep within their mindscapes - to direct their need to a more calculated purpose via their paintings, then to emerge and influence their existence.

Art is at our source of survival and upon this our future is decided.