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The Way Out is the Way Through is a 30x30inches oil on canvas of a dark forest with sunlight shining through the trees and showing a way out. It is intended to be menacing but also hopeful. The symbolism of dark forests is ingrained into humans as a species. Forests have always been both protectors and sources of danger. I painted this painting as I was trying to solve a long-term difficult issue in my own life and this painting seemed to symbolize that effort. The title is actually from a quote by L. Ron Hubbard and it means that in order to resolve stuff, the only effective way is to face the thing and find a way through it, rather than dodge it or hide from it. I like the idea and I like the metaphor that a dark forest provides. It is painted on deep edge canvas, edges dark and does need a frame.

I am a professional artist based in Sussex and I paint large original landscape and seascape paintings in oil on canvas. I have a Fine Art degree in sculpture (Brighton, 1983) but am mostly self taught as a painter. My painting style is a fusion of Expressionist, Impressionist, Semi-abstract, Art Deco, a little Art Nouveau and whatever mood I am in that day. I often practice a kind of Impressionism in that I walk, look at things and then paint from memory. The result is that I paint what was impressed upon me when I looked at a landscape - thus a kind of Impressionism! (I hope that makes sense). I am inspired by the patterns of nature and the energy, colours and spaces of the landscapes and animals around me. I like to think that...