My creative journey begins with an emotional response to colour in the landscape — the shifting hues of tree bark, the tangled layers of ground cover, and the way light filters through foliage. These elements first drew me in, and they continue to inspire my work. Over the years, I’ve walked past the same beaver pond countless times and followed a fern-lined trail in a forest I’ve come to think of as my own secret sanctuary. These familiar paths hold deep personal meaning, and my paintings are grounded in the quiet, intimate relationship I’ve built with these natural spaces. Working in traditional oils, I build each painting in layers. The initial coat — what I call “the lay of the land” — sets the foundation. From there, I return again and again, refining detail and deepening contrast, until the focal point emerges with a final, deliberate highlight.I prefer large-format panels, which allow me the physical space to explore texture and movement. Using both palette knife and brush, I apply paint in varied layers — sometimes sculpting, sometimes blending — to evoke not just the image, but the feeling of being there.