Raven Dubh

Your work often balances darkness with tenderness. When you begin a painting, do you start from an emotion, a story, or a visual image?

I begin with an emotion rather than a fixed story or image. It’s usually a quiet feeling that stays with me or something contemplative rather than explicit. The visual language develops gradually as a way of holding that emotion, allowing the painting to unfold at its own pace. I live in the West of Ireland with a view to the Atlantic Ocean and I can hear the waves crashing on the rocks, This scenery brings the stories to my head and the stories to my paintings.

You describe darkness not as fear, but as calm and contemplation. What does darkness represent for you personally?

Darkness represents stillness,peace and safety for me. It’s a space where emotion can exist without urgency or explanation. Rather than something to be feared, it feels grounding, a place of reflection, protection, and emotional honesty.

Raven Dubh with Beyond The Shadows

Many of your paintings feel like suspended moments, as if time has paused. Why are you drawn to emotional stillness rather than dramatic action?

I’m drawn to the pause like where the moment nothing is happening outwardly, but everything is felt inwardly. Stillness allows emotion to settle and deepen, giving the viewer space to connect without being directed or overwhelmed by narrative.

Ravens and solitary figures appear repeatedly in your work. What symbolic role do they play in your visual language?

Ravens function as quiet guardians in my work like observers rather than symbols of foreboding. Solitary figures reflect introspection and inner presence. Together, they suggest awareness, protection, and a sense of calm companionship rather than isolation. Ravens also bring the story of my paintings together.

Raven Dubh | Guardian

Protection, love, and loss are recurring themes in your practice. Do these themes come from personal experience, or do they evolve intuitively while painting?

They emerge from a combination of lived experience and intuition. Some themes are consciously present from the beginning, while others surface through the act of painting itself. The process often becomes a way of understanding and holding those emotions rather than defining them. My paintings have a romantic vibe and some include love whether its a Guardian protecting his love or a Painting of a book with ship and ocean are all romantic in different ways. So the story is differant for every viewer.

Raven Dubh | Phanthom Tide

What role do silence and space play in your creative process, both in the studio and within the final image?

Silence is essential to my practice. It allows me to listen closely to the work as it develops. While I paint I will listen to classical orchestral music and that sound travels and guides my paintbrush to a story. Within the final image, createmy paintings I hope bring a sense of calm and openness, inviting the viewer to slow down and engage gently with the painting.

Raven Dubh | Scripture of the drowned

Do you hope viewers find their own stories within your paintings, or do you prefer them to sense something more open and undefined?

I hope the viewer feels held with a sense of calm. I don’t aim to overwhelm or unsettle. I want the work to offer stillness, a soft place to rest emotionally. If a viewer feels seen, comforted, or momentarily removed from the noise of the world, then mypainting has done its work. I hope my paintings create a quiet connection — something intimate and unspoken — where emotion is felt rather than explained, and where tenderness exists alongside darkness without fear.