In exploring my ‘PLACE’ I am fascinated not so much by what I see but how I see it.read more >

The process of how I see my environment and how I record it is closely related to how I view my life. No matter how much one’s life can be directed and planned towards particular results, due to its complexities it often lacks clarity and is subject to unplanned outside influences. Instinctively there is usually a sense of what is right but seeing and embracing the often camouflaged influences on one’s life can be incredibly enriching.

In my pictures, the subject matter is secondary to how it is viewed. I’m not interested in providing the viewer with all the information required to understand what the subject is about. Instead, I think the picture remains more interesting and open to interpretation if all the information is not present. So my aim is to provide the viewer with a mood or an emotion to enjoy. The organic, interior or landscape based subject matter is secondary to this.

The visual qualities in my pictures are achieved through a combination of manipulating the camera’s functions and the day’s particular light characteristics. To me, there is little difference between a camera and a brush or pencil. For this exhibition I used a Canon 40D Digital SLR camera.

My current work is about having my place in the world - a place to live, a place for my art and a place with love.read more >

Textures, shapes and carvings from nature are a symbolic reminder of the place I have come from - my home in the bush. Some pieces reflect the landscapes in places I have travelled and some closer to home, in Brisbane. Even cityscapes however are overlapped with colours of the earth.

I can not express my sense of place without the use of human form - as our place in the world very much depends on the people around us. I intentionally avoid purely realistic form and focus more on space and texture to allude to the human figure. Ceramics as a medium brings welcome surprises in colour and by mainly using dark clays, I have created my pieces to take the viewer to a natural place.

Alan is currently finding his 'place' somewhere in the Scottish highlands.read more >

He'll be back soon with gifts of haggis... and his artist statement!

When I was ten years old my father gave me a Kodak instamatic camera. This was the first step of my journey.read more >

When I was about eighteen I bought a Hanimax SLR with a 50mm 1.2 lens. It wasn’t a big name camera but the lens was great. I learned about shutter speeds, focussing and apertures. Then with my first pay packet I bought an enlarger. Third step firmly on the path…

One evening I sat on the floor in my bedroom, trays of chemicals in front of me, and sepia toned a black and white print I had made myself. I can still feel the thrill.

Sometime in my early thirties my brother went to Hong Kong and bought me a Nikon FM2 with a motor winder. Love that sound…

In the years since I have bought automatic Nikons and finally eighteen months ago I bit the bullet and went digital. I still have the FM2. Sadly, the motor winder died a few years ago but the FM2 is still my favourite camera - and while Photoshop is fun, it’s still a thrill to watch an image forming in chemicals.

So where am I now?

I am here, in this place, experimenting with texture, colour, tone and light.

I am here, in this place, still learning, always learning.

I am here, in this place, exposing my dreams to people I love, people I know well, people I barely know and people I don’t know at all.

It is terrifying and wonderful and quite addictive…