Once painting found me, it quickly became a vital part of my vocabulary. I love that there are some ideas that can only be expressed visually.

My landscape paintings reflect my emotional reaction to the scene before me. I am less interested in a photorealistic representation of nature, which frees me when it comes to palette and mark-making.

I mostly use oils in my painting process. Many have mentioned this before, but oils have a special viscosity, scent and consistency that renders differently from any other media. However for preparatory work, I use watercolours and paint en plein air in an attempt to capture the immediacy of nature and the landscape. I also write fragments of poetry directly on the watercolour paper, as a way of fusing the lyrical with the visual.

I’m inspired by many artists, but there’s something remarkable about the visual language developed by Sir Howard Hodgkin during his lifetime. I admire the economy of his brushwork as much as his sensibility for colour.