Biographical Details:
I have had a rewarding career as an architect having qualified at KINGSTON SCHOOL OF ART (now Kingston University) where I also had tutoring in the Fine Art Department. Maintaining sketchbooks was an important part of our training. It has been said that an artist's real soul can be found in one's sketchbook and drawing has always been the foundation for my painting. In my latter years of my Architectural Private Practice, I was primarily involved in the Conservation of Historic Buildings and also drawing and painting leading up to my First One Man Show in 1986 at Winchester Guildhall Gallery. I was then attending painting courses at CENTRAL ST MARTIN'S COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN.
Artist's Statement:
I regularly draw from the model, usually in charcoal and marvel that so much can be expressed with the various marks and textures applied from a stick of this organic material.
Landscapes are my usual subject but I continue to paint still lifes and portraits. Human figures will always fascinate me and I sometimes introduce them into my landscapes and interiors.
I paint in other media but am most happy with pastels with which I can naturally express and "lose" myself. Pastels are the nearest one can get to pure pigment with their wonderful colours and the ability to mix them on the picture surface.
I am essentially a figurative painter but am eager to experiment and develop into abstraction.
Sir Kenneth Clark said that above all else art should be life enhancing. This is my constant ambition for my work.
Working Method:
I constantly wonder at the beauty that can be found in nature, both in its big scale and detail. In my landscape painting my approach is through study drawings emphasising aspects that initially evoke my feelings. In this process I am making myself more aware of the subject; not necessarily making something to copy. They can be viewed together with photos later in the studio so that I can determine what I wish to include or alter and I then do rapid sketches that summarise my final picture.
I usually work on a textured acrylic painted background with pencil pastels and hard and soft pastels sometimes applying water in the early stages. The contrast of these textures and spontaneity of application I find very pleasing. I try to achieve accuracy in Tone and Light but although I make colour notes in situ they are not necessarily used and I apply my personal Emotional Colours. This combined with a Sense of Place, where appropriate, is the key to adapting whatever originally inspired me.
Awards:
Royal West of England Academy : St Cuthbert's Mill Award 1995
Royal Watercolour Society: Collins & Brown Award: 1996
Brandler Galleries Award : 1997
New English Art Club: Kathleen Tronson Award : 1997
Pastel Society: Catalogue Award : 2019
Group Exhibitions Include:
New English Art Club
Royal Watercolour Society
Royal Institute of Watercolours
Royal Institute of Oils
Royal West of England Academy
Wykeham Galleries
The Alresford Gallery
The Albany Gallery
Richard Hagen Gallery
Rowley Contemporary Art Gallery
Fountain Fine Art Gallery
Travelling Exhibition:
Portrait Exhibition of Members of the L'Arche Community with learning
difficulties at Ambleteuse in France. Exhibition travelled around North
France and in Discovery Centre Winchester. Details in Portrait Section
of Website.
