ABOUT

Drawing and painting has always been part of my life. I lived in the art department at school. Shot 16mm film at art college back in the 80’s. Taught painting and drawing in the 90’s. I’ve always had a sketchbook or three on the go.

I agree with Chris Donald, “The best art explores what it means to be flesh-and-blood human, by digging into the depths of both suffering and joy: it inspires reflection, discovery and even life change.”

The rugged Cornish landscape; the edge between land and sea; the mining history around where we live all inspire me. Living as I do in Cornwall, in the remote, far south west of England, I have a strong sense of place. Yet I do not see myself as a landscape artist – more a history painter. I tend to start with drawings of what is around me. I am interested in what is there, but also what was there, and what will be there; and the gaps in between. Sometimes I go back in time, but often I go back AND forward at the same time in the same piece. Which of course involves my imagination, and necessitates playfulness being an important part of the creative process.

Some of my work may have elements of beauty, but also of ugliness, placed deliberately, as in real life, side by side.

“Often it is our awareness of the broken conditions of the world around us that lead us, strangely enough, to create beauty. We face the gap between the ideal, and grim reality.“ Makoto Fujimura (Clicking Of Heaven)

When embarking on a drawing or painting, I don’t want to set my course to a determined destination, and then successfully arrive there. I like detours, unexpected turns and impulsive directional decisions. A drawing or a painting, like life, is a journey.

Recording what I see, but also how I feel about what I see, in personal sketchbooks is important. I tend to have a number of sketchbooks of differing sizes, on the go at any one time. Pierre Bonnard’s beautiful, rapidly drawn sketches, executed often with a stubby pencil on the backs of envelopes, menu cards, or scraps of paper continue to inspire. My sketchbook drawings are usually quick and immediate – deliberately not over considered. Sketchbooks are the storage places to raid in the future in order to produce further drawings and paintings

Sometimes they lie forgotten for months, or even years. When found, I’m as interested in their sketchy, gestural, and even haphazard mark-makings, as in the original subject matter. Dots, lines and smudges are then used or borrowed. It’s a delight to discover in drawers and cupboards where we live, hidden, forgotten sketches I cannot recall making.