Studied at Portsmouth Art College and Brighton Faculty of Art and Design, UK, although tuition was virtually non-existent – so effectively self-taught. Lived, worked and exhibited in Brighton, London, Devon, Dorset, Lewes and Sheffield. Currently lives and works in Brighton.

The majority of work references the landscape, or is at least inspired by it. Some work relates to the value and meaning we place on life; or focuses on injustice and politics, including the way we treat the planet and each other.

Some of the paintings are quite austere, structured around a straight horizon. Interest is created in the application of colour and texture, to produce a thoughtful piece with layers and depth: the power of simplicity – the strength in reducing composition to the essentials. “Ornament is crime”, as the architect Adolf Loos said. Or, as we may say today, a little more colloquially: cut the crap.

A variety of techniques are employed, to suit the subject of the painting. Methods of application include palette knives, sponges, sprays, rags, paper edges and painting directly with hands – and sometimes even brushes.

Inscriptions on paintings are made by cutting directly into the paint surface using knives. Canvases are occasionally mutilated by cutting, or even burning, and then may or may not be repaired.

In addition to using oil paint, materials such as charcoal, oil pastel or graphite may also be employed – along with less traditional media, such as stove polish.

Great admirer of, and influenced by, artists including Turner, Munch, Schiele, Hopper, Bacon, Rego and Hambling.

As Marcel Duchamp commented, creation is essentially a series of choices: you make one choice, then you make another, and so on. The paintings featured here tend to adopt that approach: one change following another, then another, until the work is eventually abandoned – but hopefully not before having created a meaningful image, whatever that may be.

Most paintings are for sale. Commissions are also undertaken. Enquire at: contact@iandanielsgallery.com

All images on this site are optimised and, as a result, are at a reduced resolution, inevitably lacking the detail of the original work.

A few chosen paintings showing their stages of development.

Tracey

Tracey is depicted in front of one of her neon works: Only God Knows I'm Good, omitting the first word and covering the third.

Bridget

Bridget was developed using multiple layers of oil paint on an acrylic paint background. The dots were then added in acrylic paint.

Maggi

Maggi was started with thin paint applications, followed by overlaying thicker, knifed layers of paint.

White Forest

White Forest was built up using thick layers of white paint, applied over the prepared background, and then over the added tree forms.

Forest

Forest is made up of two canvases, one stretched over the other. The first canvas was partly painted then, once dry, the second canvas stretched over it and the complete woodland scene painted. This canvas was then partially torn down to reveal part of the one beneath.

Earth's Year

Earth's Year involved sculpturally applied layers of paint, built to a considerable thickness with a knife. The lettering was then carved into the dried paint, then the canvas repaired from behind, before final detailing with sponged and brushed paint. The dark, surrounding background was sprayed using paint flicked from a nail brush. The ratio of the area of the black dot in the centre to the area of the depicted earth is approximately the same ratio as mankind's time on earth to the age of the earth.