"For me the excitement of painting is trying to capture the 'likeness' of things without slavish description. Paradoxically, I find the most interesting way to carve out this reality is to use objects of an ephemeral nature: trees, clouds, flowers; their constant movement and the passage of the light during the day forces me to make decisions about their essential character and to attempt to draw that, rather than rely on an impression based on the moment. Similarly my approach to colour is to distil the essence and define the point of change rather than model the surface."