Frontlines - Personal Statement

I went out to Iraq and Afghanistan with very few preconceptions, but returned deeply humbled and full of overwhelming respect for the British Military.

As an artist, I have always been fascinated by the power of the still image to express human history. Today, in the media dominated age that we inhabit, conflicts around the world are superbly documented and reported through photography and film. Increasingly however, these images can blunt emotional reaction as well as stimulate it. A painting on the other hand has the potential to ask more from the viewer. It asks for an emotional engagement, it asks us to move beyond pure documentation and literal description, into a quieter evocation of something more timeless. And in a world of ever increasing visual noise, I believe it is important to bring the public gaze back to the quieter reality and more silently contemplative, universal aspects of soldiering.

Life becomes acutely condensed under conditions of duress and conflict, motivations are stronger, courage greater, emotions sharper, experiences rawer and heroism more terrible and more exhilarating in turn. A soldier may suffer a range of emotions in one day that we civilians might not experience over the course of 10 years. That is why it is often termed 'living on the sharp end'. In the face of such, it is the quiet indomitability of these men that I hope my work does justice to.

In the words of Lady Elizabeth Butler, 'I do not paint for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism.' 150 years on our soldiers are still ordinary men, doing extraordinary work under extraordinary circumstances. It is easy to let modern statistics obscure the face of war and the reality on the ground. What I try to depict is the experience of the soldier, the poetry and pathos behind the frontline, and the humbling truth behind the front pages - in essence the spaces in between, the human face of conflict.