Still life

I found substance in a return to the traditional process of painting my environment. Real people and objects appeared. I studied the world around me and tried to learn how to convert this experience into paint.

At this time (1980-82) I was studying at the Slade School in London, which was a strange mixture of the new and fashionable combined with traditional attitudes towards art. A series of excellent lectures by Sir Lawrence Gowing was my first real introduction to art history.

I did not feel much in common with contemporary trends in art and have continued to feel distanced from them ever since. In the final months at the Slade, I made a visit to Venice with two artist friends, which set the scene for the next major development in my work.