ARTIST STATEMENT

I would describe my work as a combination of spiritual and emotional experience. I was born and raised in the Maldive Islands (where land surface is only one per cent) and for me the inspiration to paint derives from the warm, clear blue sea of the tropics. These blue paintings of the sea are not just paintings of any sea. To me they are the very sea I swam as I child, the very sea that is home miles away. It is about fond childhood memories, the aching desire to go back to those idyllic days. I also touch on the subject of loss - 'global warming' is very real to my countrymen - would we exist in hundred year's time? The lack of land in my paintings is a stark reminder of that. The western obsession about 'paradise' and the desire to be stranded on a desert island fascinates me. I want the viewer to experience the 'escapism' in the work without observing it as just another picture in a tourist brochure.