Recently I have been painting with acrylic on wood panel. I use washes of acrylic paint to reveal the panels beautiful wood grain. Surface texture has always played an important role in my artwork, I have never liked the crisscross mechanical surface of canvas. As with the organic stoney texture of the paper I use for charcoal drawing, the wood panels provide yet another sensual and natural surface for my artwork. Sometimes I will see a shape or even a hint of an animal form in the wood grain and the composition of my painting will grow from that. This naturally compliments the way the figures, animals, flora, and fauna, all entwine in my artwork. This tendency towards natural forms is sometimes described as biophilia, a term coined by Edward O.Wilson, a Harvard University entomologist, referring to humans' "love of living things". Wilson describes biophilia as the "innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes."