An L-system is a kind of algorithm named after Aristid Lindenmayer, a Hungarian theoretical biologist and botanist. It uses a set of rules that mimic botany, which say when branches can split and how, with some randomness peppered in and a lot of trial and error for the painting style. Think: go straight for 2 steps, turn left. Go straight for 2 steps, branch, repeat. Normally they look very fractally and 80s, but to me they’ve always looked a bit like Joshua Trees.

There is a mathematical concept called an attractor, which is a state (or a set of numbers) that a dynamical system will eventually end up in, no matter how it starts. There are many kinds of attractors; the one used in this print is called a ‘de Jong’ attractor, named after Peter de Jong who originally published it in 1987. In each image, hundreds of particles move overt time according to a 4-dimensional mathematical function. By changing the parameters of the function, different shapes emerge. I then experimented with generating attractors that looked like recognizable objects, and then painting the objects on top. A house, a snail.

This collection explores computer generated neighbourhoods. In each image, the position, height and style of the buildings are generated by an algorithm according to some rules I have created. Each particular image was selected by me from hundreds of other such images created by the algorithm.

Have you ever wondered what the sky looked like when you were born, or on a different day special to you? These are personalized artworks of the solar system artwork (minus Pluto, sorry Pluto), using a mathematical model that accurately describes the long-term changes in the orbits of the planets. Each unique print shows the real alignment of the planets at a specified date.

An exploration of flight and computer generated movement. For each piece, I took a sheer triangle and slowly rotated and expanded it, while drawing each of these intermediate steps. The result is something that looks like movement – the wings of a bird in flight.