I am essentially a landscape artist, although probably not in the traditional sense. I work in mixed media and my aim is to explore and document our relationship with the environment. The starting point for most of my pieces is a journey. This could be a short walk, a car journey or a trip further afield. My preferred subject is the Scottish landscape; I have lived in Scotland for over 15 years and I never tire of exploring those places around me. The environment and sustainablity are important issues to me personally and increasingly something that none of us can ignore. This also feeds into my use of mixed media. My works are rarely made from only virgin materials. It comes from things that are remade or recycled, or changed and repurposed. That is as important to the work as the messages and stories about the places I visit and document. The old tins, matchboxes and ceramic fragments I integrate into the paintings are used to select the figures and buildings, to set them apart from their surroundings or provide a different perspective – often functioning like a magnifying glass.