Deuxième Étage

I love the French city of Bordeaux and am often looking for more unusual views to depict the diversity of architecture and mood. I went to visit the newly constructed Cité du vin, an amazing snail like structure of metal and yellow reflective glass. The interior proved to be just as awe inspiring as the exterior as the structure winds its way around the central atrium allowing light and shadow to move and quiver from all angles.

And as the light dances across the floors and walls, as if actors on a stage, so the movement of the visitors become enveloped in this play as they move in and out of the shadows. I am constantly inspired by light and movement and our human interaction with our surroundings, be it town or country. Oil paint allows me a versatility of texture and consistency, allowing transparent glazes to meet with textural marks, where reality can meet abstract and merge into one.

Artist’s note:
There was an unexpected encounter on the second floor of the Cité de Vin at Bordeaux, a magnificent building with an incredible organic architecture. Whilst fixing the image of reflections with my camera a small boy appeared in the frame. His parents, visitors to Bordeaux, immediately swooped in to retrieve him, but in spite of this he became the main element in one of my large paintings!