I am an ex-firefighter from Derbyshire, UK. I was born and raised in Shirebrook, a large mining village in the Derbyshire coalfields at a time when mining was the backbone of the community. Growing up in such a traditional culture meant I never really considered art as a feasible career. But even so art has always been my private passion.
I graduated in Economics from the University of Birmingham in 1976 but, after a brief spell in finance, I opted for a complete change and joined the UK fire and rescue service. I never really stopped painting completely but I only turned to art fully after my retirement in 2008. Only then, having already brought up a family and completed one demanding career, could I find the time I needed to devote to it - painting can be a draining experience.
About my art:
My art is instinctive. I am formally untaught so what’s inside is what you see -unfiltered. After much experimentation my art now follows a more figurative style. My practice – I work largely in oil and acrylic – is a personal response to various “triggers” in the world around me; in current affairs, in my physical surroundings and even in the written word.
I love the unexpected or the effect on my subconscious of events outside my control. I never know if, or how, or why such external triggers sometimes generate a response through my work. I am interested in the linkages present through such influences and the traces they leave through the narratives that are often there in my art.
A natural curiosity about how we see what we see informs what I do and my eye naturally seeks out the lyrical in the everyday. I am moved & inspired by the tensions in contrast, whether that be contrast of light, of colour or of texture and the effects this has on seeing physical form. During the painting process I am often preoccupied by boundaries, edges and the ends and beginnings of things –and in those, sometimes fleeting, visual phenomena that define and demarcate what we see. In this way I try to explore the possibilities of representation and visualization, often of the apparently mundane and everyday.
Whatever the genre the same foundations are apparent in all my work but it is probably in my still life that it finds its greatest expression. My still life work generally uses everyday objects and, by intense observation and exacting mark-making, attempts to raise them through art into forms of “beauty” in their own right. I suppose it’s a kind of realism, but not slavishly copying. Essentially I explore objects in order to enhance what’s already there, hidden in plain sight but is often overlooked; maybe surrealism in the original sense of the word is a better description.
My practice involves as much time getting myself into the right head space mentally and psychologically as it does deciding how to paint whatever it is I am painting.I know from experience that my instincts have to predominate to produce my best work, so I try to disconnect from any active thought processes and paint from the heart. The painting process itself has never really changed much. I do not like facing a blank canvas and will splatter it with leftover paint from previous work before I start. I always start with a rough outline either in thinned acrylic or charcoal and build the work up in stages, a kind of glazing process. I rarely “get it right in one” but rather prefer to feel my way towards what I’m wanting to achieve. Always aware of overworking I nurture the self-discipline to stop first. I aspire to mark-make with one or two touches – not always successfully. Always aware of overworking I nurture the self-discipline to stop first.
Artist's statement;
“I try to use my sense ofcolour and love of form to raise the spirits. My abiding design is that, likemusic, art might serve to engender a greater sense of wellbeing – in observerand creator alike.
At its best I believe art canand should be an uncomplicated and joyful experience as well as a vehicle forasking more difficult & fundamental questions about the human experience. Oneshould not have to suffer for one’s art for it to be any good, I do not believethat for a second. Inspiration can be equally derived from the joy and goodnessin the simple things of life.”
I hope you enjoy my work and return often to see how it develops. In the meantime you can often see examples of my work at the following galleries;
Leabrooks Arts Complex, Somercotes, Derbys
Courtney Gallery , Ashbourne, Derbys
Salon Contemporary Arts, Derby
