"When people look at my work, they just see horses...it's about so much more.  One needs to look beyond the surface and understand that horses can be symbolic parallels to human lives.  I use the imagery of horses - imagery that I believe is accessible to most people - to illuminate and enrich our existence, to help viewers to focus on the underlying potential and dignity of our lives. The works are suggestive - they speak to viewers, who can then ‘fill in the blanks' with there own echoes. Why horses? Their contrasts can say so much. Despite their strength and vitality, they have a vulnerable, graceful quality. They are wild and chaotic, yet can exude peace, calm and gentleness. Plain and heavy or exotic and delicate - they are as varied as humans.  And through the subtlety of the gentleness, they give grace to life, providing us with aesthetic pleasure just by being.

My work has an immediacy of vision that is reflected in its spontaneous, seemingly disordered or haphazard nature.  Underlying the surface imagery, however, are formal elements and a sense of balance that is surprising.  The order results from my vision of what I want to express.

I like to think my work has an energy, and an exuberant quality, amplified by the fact I work in mixed media - watercolours, oil paintings, and pastels -entirely left-handedly. A decision to use the untrained hand, to attempt to tap into instinctive, subconscious, non-rational energies that supposedly emanate from the “right brain” has added another interesting dimension to my work.

Kaija