Beings is where I paint the living world: faces and feathers, fur and physique, curious eyes and bodies caught in motion or rest. People and animals interest me for much the same reason. Each carries a character that cannot be explained. I begin with shape, colour and gesture, then wait for a presence to emerge—a certain gaze, humour, dignity or mischief. The paintings are not exact portraits, nor are they entirely imagined. They are meetings between observation and feeling, between the creature before me and the life I sense within it. Every being has its own way of looking back.
