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I was born in 1952 in St Helens and after working for some time in local industry, I followed my ambition to study art. I graduated from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in 1984 where I studied for a BA Hons in Fine Art with a specialist interest in 2 and 3 dimensional forms of expression. After studying for a Post Graduate qualification in teaching I began to teach Art and Design in a Wigan school and remained there for the next 30 years as head of department. During that time I was awarded a two year secondment to work as the Curator/Gallery Education Officer at the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh and later during the period 2000-2002 completed a MA-Artist /Teacher qualification once again at LJMU.
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Since retiring from teaching, I have relocated to Wales (as I always promised myself) and over the last few years have set to work in my studio busily embarking on the next phase of my working life. I have loved Wales since being a child and when I moved here in 2012 following my career teaching art in the North West of England, I have found the time to pursue my long held ambition to paint. Previously, my artwork was conceptual in nature and focused on the land’s grand beauty and tradition whilst remaining mindful of the vast industrial despoilment that took place here and landscape’s wondrous ability to recover and regenerate over time. I created films showing the way nature can reclaim and heal. However, now that I live here, I have been interested in the authenticity of rendering the ‘ordinariness of beauty’ in any given place, not so much considering the ‘epic’ nature of a place.
'The Glistening Aber Glaslyn with Boulders' 2023 ...Oil on Canvas
'The Glistening Aber Glaslyn with Boulders' 2023 ...Oil on Canvas
Walking and re-walking paths to familiarize myself with a myriad aspects of how we see landscape is important to my own personal way of seeing beauty and interest in anything that catches my eye. This year my work has focused upon capturing instances from many walks in and around my immediate vicinity. My trusty camera always by my side to capture the views I see and am inspired by. The flow and movement of water in sunlight has been a major inspiration and the ambiguities created by the linear forms and the shapes, gaps and shadows as seen against the boulders and rock that hinder or enable the water's passage. My fascination with the complexity of what is real and what is transient has occupied my time whilst viewing what I see from a variety of perspectives gives me plenty of scope for consideration in my work to date.
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The work I produced before 'lockdown' in both oils and water based media, was very much concerned with my interest in the changes that were clearly taking place to our weather patterns. My colour palette became much more more sombre than it had been in earlier years and was meant to represent and symbolise the charred nature of the landscape after the devastation that occurred during September 2018. On the high moors the land was completely scorched with the heather coverage being turned to charcoal. Recent walks up on the hills show that some regeneration has begun to show but it will be years yet before the fauna will be able to return to their habitats. 'The Firebreak Path' 2020... Oil on Canvas (image opposite) |
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