The main theme that underpins both series of paintings I'm currently working on is cause and effect. The complex interaction between external forces and internal predispositions. The Arterio/Angiogram paintings focus mainly on the reward area of the brain, the dopaminergic pathway also known as the pleasure pathway, which is so influential in human emotional behaviour. This serves not only innate instinctual drives such as hunger and sex, but is also activated by mood  enhancing stimuli from drugs and alcohol, to things like gambling. Research has also suggested it may play a role in the transcendent  experience associated with music, art and spirituality. Although there is wealth  of scientific literature relating to this subject, for example Skinner's  reinforcement experiments, Pavlov's classical conditioning theory and Freud's focus on unconscious drives. We need only observe the pressure cooker that is modern life, to see how habitual escapist behaviour is intrinsic in our lives and how certain personalities are compelled to flirt with the flames. The nocturns are more of an encapsulation of the phenomena when driving in solitude on dark silent roads. It is one of the few occasions where one can pause for the thought, reflect on the past, dream of the future, while the worlds a little less frenetic.

Qualifications

2006 BSc in psychology (1st Class Hons) Open university.
1989 College diploma in Graphic Design and Advertising. Barking College of Technology