My still life pictures are not about a contrived beauty or a realistic rendering of inanimate objects. I will begin with a particular idea but then it can go anywhere. My work is a cocktail of premeditation, improvisation and intuition. I rework, reorder and reorganize the pictorial space and so the artwork strays and evolves from its original source material. Subsequently each painting is built up layer upon layer with images overlaid or retraced. There are paintings under paintings each containing hidden secrets. These images subtly influence subsequent layers but are themselves fragmented and obscured in the process. I take a visual delight in making marks, deliberate and accidental – scraping, drawing, scratching, erasing or dribbling paint – a range of expression. I enjoy the contrast between the tight line of the pencil and the broad expanse of the brush.