It is the custom to begin the new year by looking back to the last, and 2011 was a remarkable year for me in many ways. As my friends and family know I have been painting the female figure on and off since leaving collage, but in 2011 these figures started to take a new direction, almost by themselves. It's a long story, but I will try to be brief.

Working in The Bath Gallery gives me the wonderful opportunity to meet and discuss art with a very wide variety of fellow artists, painters and collectors. It was while assisting on a major sculptural project that I was inspired too think about man's relationship to the animal world, and in-particular how we use animals to express intellectual, spiritual or carnal beliefs.

Animals are woven into our history and mythology. They have always represented our gods, our demons, we refer to them when explaining ourselves and others. For example I am not ashamed to admit that I can be as "stubborn as a mule", or sometimes I am a "bull in a china shop". Where as my daughter is a "social butterfly" with the "grace of a swan". In using statements like these we are identifying ourselves with the animal world, but also em-dowering ourselves with there qualities.

Our fascination with the animal world starts before recorded time with the breath taking paintings at Chauvet-pont-d'Arc as just one example, but it also lifts us up to the stars, with animals being placed in the heaven's as our guardians and guides.

With these thoughts dancing in my head I started to paint and the following images are some of the results.