UPDATES
Rocks
#allthatglitters – dreams of fortunes
With dreams of fortunes and fool’s gold, dynamic crystalline geometries both reflective and translucent, rocks provide a fascinating subject to study. Holding a piece of rock is akin to holding the earth’s history in your hands, and it can be imagined as a whole mountain range in miniature. I find it very difficult to describe rocks visually. They hold a fascination for me, and I regularly seek out examples of other artists’ work for inspiration.
Trees
#solesurvivors – exploring isolation
A single tree silhouetted on the skyline is a trope of loneliness, but that does not diminish the power of such an image as a single tree is the sole survivor of a onetime forest. Trees do not grow in isolation; they are social beings that benefit from being in numbers, and we mammals have a close association and long-standing interdependence with them, as it was their early presence on the planet that exchanged the carbon-filled atmosphere for life-giving oxygen.
It is this close relationship that I like to explore in my studies of trees, bark, leaves and forests.
Reliquaries, container of divine power
#relicsandreliquaries -certainty of power
Otherwise unremarkable objects, a nail, a splinter of wood or a square of linen are imbued with the power to heal and mend broken lives by faith and their sumptuous presentation. There is an irony between the mundanity of the object, a nail, and the gold, emeralds, pearls and rubies that surround it, suggesting the uncertainty of power.
I think I can use this ‘objective irony’ to good effect in an artwork.
Stairs – suspense and surprise
#betweenworlds – ascending and descending
The geometry of stairs in all their fascinating varieties – sharp and steep leading down to a cellar or sweeping upwards to a grand hall – always provides a tantalising prelude to what is hidden from view. They are still, silent, inanimate, yet hold the possibility of suspense and surprise.
In my latest works I have added people to the scenes to see how they react to this intriguing environment.
Pas de Calais
#weatheredlandscape – elemental sculpture
Coastal regions where gales often lash the landscape have a character of their own, and one particular favourite is the Pas de Calais where the trees that have survived have bent to the prevailing winds. Trying to capture this landscape without taming it provides an intriguing challenge.
Betta Bilda, Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green
Natural Forms
#sourceofabstraction – the boundary between
Natural Forms is part of a series of works inspired by nature. While they provide life-long sources of interest, these subjects ultimately form the basis of my abstract paintings which are both hard-edged and yet fluid in appearance. Natural Forms focuses on the boundary between flora and fauna, such as a fungus that resembles flesh, or a shell that takes on the appearance of a human ear.
Seasons
#everchangingseasons – the continual cycle
Seasons is part of a series of works inspired by nature. While they provide life-long sources of interest, these subjects ultimately form the basis of my abstract paintings which are both hard-edged and yet fluid in appearance. Seasons looks closely at the continual cycle of birth, growth, maturity and death.
tableaux of dreams
This is one of my very long-term projects which is far from being completed, as I have not yet understood sufficiently what it is about. I have completed over 100 drawings with an accompanying 10,000 word text.
