I suppose that the question to ask your-self is why painting. I tend to be a fairly solitary person, so for me painting works well. It gives me the kind of space that I need for my ideas or images to evolve. It tends to slow things down enough to suit my personality.

When I started painting in the mid 80s, most of the work being done in Toronto at that time was more conceptual, where the idea was usually more important than the image. This kind of painting didn't really interest me much so I pretty much worked on my craft without much attention towards having shows. I'm not sure why I prefer the image to the idea, that's just the way it is. When I moved out west I met other painters doing the same sort of thing I was doing. I was exposed to a type of context in painting that I liked, so I stayed.

The images that I choose to paint come from a variety of sources: sketches, photographs and memory. I'm not so big on en plein air painting. It's too big. I like something that is contained on the page. I'll use a sketch or photograph to record the initial idea of what that image is, and then move into using memory for the rest of the painting.

The experience of looking at nature, of being in nature is important for me, as it's that experience I want to bring back to my studio when I start a painting. With this notion of experience, you're always looking at the world. Painting makes me more aware of the place I live and hopefully the world that I live in.