BIZAARE PAINTINGS

My idea of BIZAARE PAINTINGS was born while I was still living in Oxfordshire and I had no plans to move to Portugal yet. My head was fizzing with many ideas for paintings which had little to do with each other, except that they were all slightly creepy and weird. They were like puzzles from my memory, sometimes motives from my dreams; things that left some mark on my personality and shaped who I am today.

Living on a small farm in Oxfordshire made me realise how fine a line exists between the beauty of nature and its cruelty. One moment you could find yourself mesmerised by a sea of wheat as the wind slushes it around, making it move as though it were a single body. A few hours later, that same wind is ripping tiles from your roof and howling through the house. As I looked at the natural world surrounding me, the boundary line between 'pretty' and 'ugly' began to shrink and eventually stopped existing. In its place grew admiration and respect.

When I moved to Portugal I decided to free all of these bizarre pictures from my head and I found the old city of Porto to be a kingdom of bazaars and flea markets whose mysterious, jumbled atmosphere suited me so much and where I could hunt for beautiful frames and more inspiration. Me and my BIZAARE PAINTINGS are at home now.