The paintings included in this exhibition represent two different but complementary strands of my work, landscape and abstraction. References to earth, sky, water and light remain at the heart of both. Over the past 10 years I have become increasingly interested in and inspired by ceramics - particularly Japanese tea bowls and the work of ceramicist Lucie Rie. I am not sure if it is the inner glow of light from the glazes, the marks, the surfaces, the human scale or the physical presence of something hand-made, intimate or maybe all of those things that connect to something I want in my painting. Showing my paintings at Bluecoat Display Centre gives me a new and exciting context in which to see my work and ways that it might evolve.