The figures I paint are always men.

I am often inspired by an insignificant background figure from a newspaper cutting - someone doing nothing in particular, a bystander, or a member of a crowd. A small gesture or expression may attract me. A tiny hint may grow into a picture that 'says it all'.

I work through drawings and collage using torn paper and cardboard . Collage is important to me : I use it to experiment with composition, layering and surface. The process helps structure the work, and the influence of collage can often be seen in the finished piece. My studio is littered with scores of paper men.

Suits, shirts, ties, uniforms, decorations and regalia give the figures some sort of collective identity. I use repetition and mirror imaging and paint the same man again and again.

I add and remove layers as I paint. Motifs are repeated and reused from painting to painting.

I have become ever more excited by paint itself, it's capacity to transform and thrill in the process of making a painting.

I am drawn to subtexts in my sources, and viewers find their own stories in the paintings: there is no definitive reading.

During lockdown in 2020 I became inspired by the containment and resilience of houseplants. From sketches of their shapes and shadows I produced a series of paintings which I’ve continued to develop in the studio.