Bacchus and Ariadne, 2023, oil on canvas, 122x153 cm

I have made these paintings in response both to the transitional times we’re living through and to major transitions in my own life. In exploring this central theme of change, the Metamorphoses by Ovid has been my main source of inspiration, that and the woods near my studio in Hertfordshire where light and the seasons effect constant change. Myth is a brilliant tool for understanding life and ourselves; it’s a way of interrogating the forces that are at work under the surface appearance of things. It provides a way into the bigger picture, a map of the connecting threads of cause and effect. Gods, beasts and mortals serve as metaphors for the aspects of ourselves that we cannot name but which incite a pulse of recognition. The interplay of male and female, light and dark, magical and mundane reflect the strange experience of being human. These paintings invite the viewer to step into a subconscious space, a waking dream where experience and associations connect with abstract sensation.

Ovid wove the huge matrix of Greek mythology into one epic poem that joined the creation of the world, through gods, battles and beasts to his present day of Augustan Rome. Through a rolling narrative fuelled by the twists of chance and the power of the gods he showed us how little control his protagonists have in the course of their fate. In using the Metamorphoses as a source, certain myths – Narcissus and Echo, Apollo and Daphne – have triggered paintings that also have their own momentum. I start a painting with an idea in mind but I end up with something entirely different. Letting go of the plan and letting process drive the painting invites the subconscious into the field of play. There’s the idea and there’s the freedom of letting the paint react to itself… something will happen in this play between order and chaos. Through many layers, and often many months the painting goes through its own metamorphosis, just as myths themselves change and respond to the people that tell them, inviting a deeper connection.

“My soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed to bodies new and strange”