Born 1956 in Coventry, West Midlands, UK
Currently living and working in Cambridge.
Background:
After a career spent working in scientific and medical research an honours degree (first class) in humanities and art history with the Open University gave me an understanding of where my own thoughts, feelings and ideas fit in the landscape of the art world.
Having been trained in engineering drawing back in the days before computer aided design I understood the process of how three-dimensional objects can be represented on a two-dimensional picture plane and my path into art was initially through drawing. The representation of the human figure with its combination of structural requirements and living, breathing personality provided an ideal source of subject matter. Before long I had set up and was running monthly all-day life drawing sessions that attracted artists from not only the local Cambridge area but also further afield.
Attending several short courses at the St Ives School of Painting and the Norfolk Painting School has taught me the pleasures and pitfalls of painting and this is now my main medium of expression.
Aims:
Through my painting I seek to capture the essence of a place, what makes it the way it is and what makes it different to other places. Using an ontological approach I seek out the colours and textures of the substances that make up the thing that we know of as a place, whether it is the natural elements or the built environment, or indeed how those two aspects come together and interact.
I see my art as the art of place in relation to space and whereas traditional landscapes portray the view from a point looking at somewhere out there, I try to look at the place where I am. The focus thus moves from the horizon to the centre and in doing so reveals landscapes that exist on a different scale but are landscapes none the less.
My process starts with walking, not to anywhere or with a purpose in mind but just absorbing, allowing the environment to interact with me. Zen monks seek the state of no-mind and this part of the process feels like a meditation. At some point something will catch my eye, sometimes a stone or a shell or maybe a piece of rusty metal, but it will be an interaction and it is this moment at this place that I will then use to produce an artwork.