About
the artist.
I grew up in South Africa, then spent seven years in Austria, then came to Florida to visit friends and never left. That is the short version.
I came to painting through the side door. I spent time working alongside a sculptor, doing shows, watching collectors stop in front of work that moved them. I found myself wanting pieces I couldn't afford. So I started making them myself. That is the honest beginning.
My paintings grow out of the places I have called home: Southern Africa, Austria, and now Florida. I work on the floor or against the wall, building each piece in layers, letting one mark lead to the next until the surface feels alive. I am not trying to make work that explains itself. The three continents show up in the rhythm of the marks more than in any obvious reference. You do not need to know where it comes from. You just need to feel that something real was put into it.
People who buy the work tell me different things about what they see in it. Some see landscape. Some see something purely abstract. I stopped trying to control that. If it stops someone, if they keep coming back to a painting in their mind, that is the whole point.
The studio.
I live and work from my studio in Dunedin, a small coastal town on the Gulf Coast of Florida, twenty minutes from Tampa and St. Petersburg. My work has sold to collectors across the US, from Florida and the Southeast to New York, Nashville, California and beyond, as well as internationally. Studio visits are available by appointment in Dunedin.
How the work gets made.
Most paintings start with some idea but are spontaneous. I work on the floor or against the wall, moving around the surface, responding to what is already there. One mark suggests the next. A color calls for its opposite. A line goes somewhere unexpected and I follow it.
I work with oil sticks and markers, sometimes acrylic, sometimes pencil. The process is slow and layered. I put a painting down, let it dry, come back to it, add more, put it down again. A painting might live on my wall for weeks before it feels finished. I do not decide when it is done so much as I recognise it.
Each painting ships with a certificate of authenticity signed by me. If you want to know more about a specific work or how it might look in your space, just reach out.
