About

I've been making art obsessively for thirty years but have only recently been described as an emerging artist. I don’t know how long it will be until I am fully emerged but I really need another thirty years to complete all the projects and plans I have for new work.

As a child I drew and painted people all the time. The pictures were mostly battle scenes, with limbs and weapons flying in all directions. I also remember a scene of commuters fighting to get on to a train, hitting each other with brollies and briefcases. The platform was littered with bowler hats.

Since then I've painted extensively in every genre - portraiture, still life, landscape and abstraction - as well as being a sculptor for many years – but the one subject I keep coming back to is the human crowd.

After a trip to China in the Olympic year of 2008 (where I saw a lot of synchronised crowd activity) I was inspired to begin the CrowdingAbout Series. These paintings use a format based on isometric perspective to take a detached, aerial view of human crowds engaged in a multitude of leisure and work-related activities.

These works express a fine balance – or tension - between communality and individuality. On one level these crowds are an expression of uniformity - the people are all wearing the same stuff and doing the same activity - and this is what makes them work as colourful, semi-abstract patterns. On the other hand, look closely and you can see a huge variety of character, gesture and expression among them. Some individuals stand out. Depending on your viewpoint you could find these paintings nightmarish – or just seriously funny.

A recent development has been the PaintersPainting Series, in which I depict crowds of artists. This was begun in response to some research into the Dafen artists' village in China, where 10,000 artists produce 60% of the world’s oil paintings – mostly fakes of famous masterpieces. I wanted to depict factories of artists where instead of working in lofty isolation, each artist is seen working alongside the others. This ongoing series has proved to be popular with art lovers everywhere.

Comparisons have been made between my work and that of Bruegel, Hogarth, Daumier, and of course Lowry, but despite these influences I like to think that my take on the world is my own. However, like all artists who specialise in painting the human crowd I am trying to reach an understanding of that infinitely strange yet familiar species to which we all belong...


Education

1976-77 Foundation Course, Kingston University
1977-80 BA Degree: Fine Art, University of Brighton
1986-87 PGCE, Middlesex University
1996-98 MA Fine Art & Media, University of Gloucestershire


Group Exhibitions

1977 Foundation show, Kingston
1980 Degree show, Brighton
1984 The 1984 Show, Brixton Art Gallery
1989 Cotswold Connections, Red Herring Gallery, Brighton
1991 Clay Bodies, Workshop Gallery, Chepstow
1992 Melksham Court, Stinchcombe
1992 National Garden Festival, Ebbw Vale
1993 International Garden festival, Stuttgart
1995 One From the Heart, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
1997 Interim MA Show, University of Gloucestershire
1998 MA Show, University of Gloucestershire
1999 Ida Branson Bequest, Atkinson Gallery, Street
2004 GANET show, Guildhall Arts Centre, Gloucester
2005 Nailsworth Festival, Gloucestershire
2006 Open Studios, Oxford Artweeks
2007 Venice, Fusion Gallery, Wotton-u-Edge
2009 ByLocal, Regency Arcade, Cheltenham
2010 Firenzia, Fusion Gallery
2010 Oxford Artweeks
2010 Cotswold Craftsmen, Nailsworth
2011 Northern Sights, Fusion Gallery, Wotton-u-Edge
2011 Oxford Artweeks

Solo Exhibitions

1983 CND Bookshop, Finsbury Park, London
1985 Foxes Wine Bar, Stoke Newington, London
1985 Clissold Swimming Pool, Stoke Newington
1986 Housing Office, Stamford Hill, London
1986 St Leonard’s Hospital, Hackney, London
1987 North Street Potters, Clapham, London
1988 Showcase Exhibition, Prema Arts Centre, Uley, Gloucestershire
1993 Clay Bodies, Prema Arts Centre
2010 Guildhall Arts Centre
2010 The Lion Gallery, Leominster
2011 Salford Art Gallery & Museum

Paintings, prints and cards selling in shops and galleries throughout UK - see Links section.