" My paintings begin maybe with a doodle from a daydream, a photograph of my children, a local model, or inspired by the last painting i worked on. I usually have a firm idea of the main composition but the rest happens organically as I begin to paint. I use acrylic, metallics and several layers of resin.

I start with a primed wooden board cut to the size I require. First, I draw on the main elements and then I paint in some background colour. There is always a plan to this background layer and it is the most critical time of the painting. This is because I need to have a good idea of which colours will be applied upon the next layer.

For example, if I want a purple colour, I may put blue on the background layer, add resin and then paint red on the next layer. This creates a purple of more translucent depth than one tube of colour can. The areas that I leave on the background are the most important to me because if these are left untouched throughout all of the resin layers, I can use them as the highlights without the need to paint a flat colour afterwards. This effect cannot be achieved with paint, because it is created by light passing though the resin layers. A shade of black for example would create a deeper black than if it were painted on the top layer. A red could be intensified by painting more reds on the following layers. And so on.

Subsequent layers of resin are painted upon, building up and intensifying the background colours, or painting over pastels to give a gentle translucent colour. Upon the top layer of resin, I add the finer details of the piece, add small white highlights and the finished image is archival-varnished."