‘The Pav’ is painted using oil and acrylic on canvas. It is a large painting on an artist’s high quality Windsor and Newton stretcher which is warp resistant.
 
The painting is made using large brushstrokes and the texture of the paint and brush marks are visible on the surface of the canvas. It is painted using a combination of oil and acrylic paint which gives it extreme vibrancy and shine in some areas. In some areas of the painting the oil pigment is fluorescent which gives intense strong colour.
 
The paintings for 'In the Air' have been especially developed for the gallery space within Shoreham Airport’s’ Whispering Gallery’. Shoreham airport in a wonderful art deco grade 11 listed building. The atrium gallery is lit by natural overhead light and the centre of the space is a turquoise atrium with an aeroplane flying across.
 
The paintings developed in direct response to this space. I have always known the airport as it is local to me and an excellent place to take young children as you can sit right outside near the runway in the café having lunch and watching planes taking off and landing. I’ve spent a lot pf happy afternoons watching planes with my own boys and it struck me as great subject matter. Planes, going and coming, travelling, touching down in new and far flying places, the memories checking in a bag evokes are feeling that I wanted to capture in the work.
 
I reached out to the airport hoping that they would be open to the idea of me exhibiting in this special space and they were. I spent some time researching the archive at the airport, learning about the stories of early pilots, and considering how the curves and lines of the space and view to beneath would interplay with the work.
Eventually I developed a series of ten paintings for this show. Each one is special and each one is unique.
 
The pavilion is based on a seafront building in Worthing. Whilst not art deco in style its fancy dome cries out to be painted. Now plastered in posters for pantos it’s the launching point for walks down the pier. I wanted to include some vintage found imagery into the work and I looked up stories of early Worthing beach.
 
I found a wonderful old photograph of an elephant walking along the beach accompanied by a troupe of people walking alongside and I decided to include it in the painting. It felt right.