Artist-in-Residence, Railway Land Wildlife Trust, Lewes, East Sussex UK / 2023-2024

My artwork conveys the essence of ‘being’ in a specific environment. As current artist-in-residence at the Lewes Railway Land, my work is inspired by felt experience of the area as nature reserve, as well as referencing its geographical features, ecology and social history. I believe in the power of close attention in order to connect with one’s surroundings in a meaningful way and to foster the ability to be articulate in artistic expression. The more observation time I spend here, the more ways there seem to be to explore the seasonal processes of nature and to communicate the feelings they engender within us.

Thinking in a much wider sense, the poet Mary Oliver wrote, “Attention is the beginning of devotion”. I have experienced first hand the truth of this statement. The reason is that Immersing myself in this natural environment makes me feel calmer, more relaxed yet more energetic! More mentally alert and uplifted. In return it follows that this Happiness Effect nurtures a more caring, positive and devoted relationship with nature.

All works are made with water-based mixed media on aluminium.

Attention as Devotion

A series of mixed media collages on paper, the small size and scale of which are expressive of the importance and value of noticing with intent. It’s all about the details!

Water unseats the science of strata / 2022

A trip to Venice in May 2022 provided the inspiration for artworks which speak of impermanence. The use of reflective aluminium as substrate which is sometimes visible through the paint recalls the rise and fall of water levels and the consequent submerging and reclamation of land over time. In these works, water takes on inexorable power. A natural force that cannot be held back, water seeps in, to muddy borderlines and flood territories until all humanity’s pretensions of control are eventually worn away. Water is also materially impermanent. Shifting from rain to stream to river to ice to rain again, it represents something eternally shifting from one state to another. The work catches this shapeshifter in all its flux and flow.

All works are made with water-based mixed media on aluminium.

Home Ground ongoing series of paintings embodying the energetic tangle of toughness with delicacy in burgeoning nature

Water-based paint, ink, charcoal and water-soluble crayon on paper, framed in black wood with non-reflective glass. 53cm x 53cm.

Searchers 1 to 6 2022

Drawn to the songs and patterns of birds flying overhead, sensing in their restlessness and journeying an intimation of migration linked to my family heritage. In these works, the motif of nests comes up against the flight paths of birds in paintings poised between the twin axes of migration and homecoming.

Water-based paint, water-soluble crayon on thick paper, float mounted under glass in white obeche wood frame. 53cm x 53 cm framed.

Vocal Tracks: how to inhabit the air

From an earlier series of waterbased paintings on canvas, inspired by aerial routes and the patterns of birdsong ever present on daily walks through the South Downs National Park.

hyper, space is a video made in 2020 which was shortlisted for the Wells Art Contemporary awards.

Distancing

At that time we were in lockdown, socially distanced. The following large collage and mixed media works on linen canvas express the almost echoing numbness of isolation.

Of pulse and pattern

Our changing view, according to where we stand, allows at once the tactility of presence and the intangibility of distance. In between, the land rises and falls in a cadence changed over time through weathering and a myriad crisscrossing tracks and trails, through which we are connected with all who have moved over the same ground.