My true interest in painting began at the age of seventeen upon opening a book of collected works by Wassily Kandinsky. Up until that point, I had drawn and painted without conscious purpose. Kandinsky's compositions seemed to me to be highly expressive even though they generally lacked any formal subject which might act as the expressive device. This was the first time I had admired abstraction, and found the absence of a recognisable subject mysteriously gripping. At the age eighteen, I went to study art at Warwickshire College. Here I was introduced to a host of both twentieth century and pre-twentieth century artists, which deepened my interest in the history of the subject. It was the abstract expressionists from the first half of that century who continued to enthral me most. I enjoyed the purposefully flat compositions, the explicit use of the properties of the paint, and the rich colour schemes, and felt Paul Klee to be an exemplary in the field. It was these features that I tried to incorporate into my own paintings. During this time, my interests began to diversify, and I found myself experimenting with photography and then film. Thus, I was working on a dual project. What I felt was lacking from my own paintings, namely specific subjects, I was making up for with film. Following Warwickshire College, I attended the University of Southampton, where I read Mathematics and Philosophy. These two disciplines focused my inclination back towards subjects which dealt, or hoped to at least, with eternal truths rather than relative or social values. I felt as if the principles of the two topics complimented my own principles on painting. I have likened my exploration to that of a musician's, whose pursuit of expression involves the moulding of intangible elements, where one would liken a colour to a note on the musical scale. My study of philosophy in time led to me exploring the spiritual doctrines of Asia, of which I found Zen Buddhism the most appealing. The philosophy expounded in Zen is one of spontaneity, which helped to reinforce my approach to the way I paint. The concepts in Zen also appealed to my sense of the mysterious within the realm of abstract painting I first encountered with Kandinsky. The small amount of travel I have undertaken, across Europe and parts of northern Africa, has led to an appetite for more. Later this year I intend to travel across Russia and into Asia, and to seek out the artistic outputs of these great land masses.