My work is a mash of inspiration from childhood memories, dreams, and traditional stories. I create fantastical landscapes populated with people and anthropomorphic creatures, telling tales of joy and sadness mixed with shades of darkness for the viewer to interpret. The latest work has provided refuge from the recent events of the Pandemic and the war in Ukraine. I am reminded of waking up from a bad dream or a recurring nightmare when the challenge is to change the ending. Through drawing and painting I explore ways of avoiding the horror by creating various shelters, bothies and dwellings for sanctuary and exploring the potential of transformation.
This body of work references childhood memories of using things like boxes, books, jugs and hangers to transform the ordinary into an extraordinary theatre for imagining and storytelling; miscellaneous props becoming backdrops for different narratives. Landscapes are generated from memory, heightened by observational drawings of local environments and my particular interest in public parks and gardens (such as the Italian Giardini di Boboli, the Botanical Gardens in Chicago and the Arboretum, Nottingham). Meanwhile, plants are a mix of invented and observed floral patterns, reminiscent of the beautiful French Mille-Fluers (‘thousand flowers) tapestries of the fifteenth century. Whilst the intense colours of Indian miniatures are an inspiration from a time spent in Gujarat, the exquisite details and storytelling qualities are also elements which feed my work.
The cast are an assortment of hybrids, knick-knacks, toys and my own inventions. Some are ‘precious’ mementos, others are family toys and a few are gifted to find a role in the paintings. Objects may have a personal meaning but some characters reference traditional stories. The deer for example, frequently appear as guardians or sometimes symbolise the circle of life. They can also represent a human/animal relationship. The story of Artemis is one story which appears in different guises in the work.
The paintings appear as a moment frozen in time. The static pose of the figurine and the fixed expression of a doll are a reminder of the stop-frame animations of the 1960s & 70’s such as the ‘Clangers’, ‘Bagpuss’ and ‘The Magic Roundabout’.
Tiny dramas pepper the larger canvases where the eye is taken on a route round a warren of images, each habitat offering a different story, whilst a single happening might be the focus of smaller pieces. Although I might interpret the various scenarios in a particular way, these stories are deliberately ambiguous. For example, the tiny floating heads on ‘’Telling Tales’ can be viewed as little beans of joy bouncing about the canvas or alternatively they can be seen as a more sinister species ready to invade.
This body of work references childhood memories of using things like boxes, books, jugs and hangers to transform the ordinary into an extraordinary theatre for imagining and storytelling; miscellaneous props becoming backdrops for different narratives. Landscapes are generated from memory, heightened by observational drawings of local environments and my particular interest in public parks and gardens (such as the Italian Giardini di Boboli, the Botanical Gardens in Chicago and the Arboretum, Nottingham). Meanwhile, plants are a mix of invented and observed floral patterns, reminiscent of the beautiful French Mille-Fluers (‘thousand flowers) tapestries of the fifteenth century. Whilst the intense colours of Indian miniatures are an inspiration from a time spent in Gujarat, the exquisite details and storytelling qualities are also elements which feed my work.
The cast are an assortment of hybrids, knick-knacks, toys and my own inventions. Some are ‘precious’ mementos, others are family toys and a few are gifted to find a role in the paintings. Objects may have a personal meaning but some characters reference traditional stories. The deer for example, frequently appear as guardians or sometimes symbolise the circle of life. They can also represent a human/animal relationship. The story of Artemis is one story which appears in different guises in the work.
The paintings appear as a moment frozen in time. The static pose of the figurine and the fixed expression of a doll are a reminder of the stop-frame animations of the 1960s & 70’s such as the ‘Clangers’, ‘Bagpuss’ and ‘The Magic Roundabout’.
Tiny dramas pepper the larger canvases where the eye is taken on a route round a warren of images, each habitat offering a different story, whilst a single happening might be the focus of smaller pieces. Although I might interpret the various scenarios in a particular way, these stories are deliberately ambiguous. For example, the tiny floating heads on ‘’Telling Tales’ can be viewed as little beans of joy bouncing about the canvas or alternatively they can be seen as a more sinister species ready to invade.