My paintings owe a lot to the Old Masters, adopting some time-honoured techniques which I use to my own ends. There are echoes of classical portraiture in my work, although my play with classical techniques lend the works a more contemporaneous feel. I often draw upon my own experiences – the unsettled matters of my own life – but my subjects and subject matter are at the same time a conscious rendering of ‘the familiar’. Whilst I sometimes examine the human form through my painting, my focus is on the setting for these ‘characters’ – the space they occupy and the props that lend meaning to their worlds. My images can be enigmatic and the situations I depict at times ambiguous, but I hope my work illustrates my understanding that whilst the response to an unsettled or unsettling matter may feel personal to each of us, it is actually a universal feeling.