Artist statement
Concepts
My practice is wide-ranging using watercolour, gesso, oils and acrylics as well as natural and found materials, in two and three dimensions as well as site-specific installations. I am interested in the extension of two into three dimensions, and I work in series which are cyclical. The site-specific work is generated from the site itself, combined with motifs or ideas that are occurring concurrently or have been developed over a period of time.
The overriding themes are the passage of time and perpetual change,together with a constancy which persists. Remnants of human and animal presence: tracks, trails, the archaeology of human interaction with the land, marks of ritual, labour and agriculture, all figure particularly in the work located in Derbyshire. In other series the effects of phenomenological changes to a constant subject are recorded or equivalents are sought which hold the sense of impressions fleeting yet intense.
Influences
Turner, Hitchens, Rothko, Rosenquist, Newman, Louis; land artists & arte povera: Smithson, Pennone, Long, Rebekah Horn and Cornelia Parker.
Career path
Qualifications:
Currently studying for a PhD in Fine Art & Philosophy at Staffordshire University.
1990 MA Art Education, Birmingham Polytechnic
1971 PGCE, Manchester University
1970 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Painting, Gloucestershire College of Art and Design
1967 Foundation (Pre-Diploma), Manchester College of Art and Design
Teaching Experience:
Sept.2010 - Associate Lecturer, Fine Art, University of Derby
1992- 2008- Full-time Senior Lecturer, Fine Art and Foundation Staffordshire University, and
1998 - 2008 Course leader, Introductory Studies Programme, School of Art and Design, Staffordshire University
1979/87 Part-time Lecturer in Drawing and Perception, College of Art and Design, Derbyshire College of Higher Education
1986/92 Part-time Lecturer in Foundation, Staffordshire University
1984/86 Part-time Lecturer in Psychology of Perception, Loughborough
1984/92 Part-time Lecturer, Fine Art, Painting, Staffordshire University
Areas of work:
Tertiary education
Adult education
Exhibiting
Lecturing
Practice-based research
Private commissions
Public art
Visual arts consultancy
Workshops
Collections:
Private collections
Nottingham Trent University
Paintings for Hospitals
Public realm
- 2009 what children make of things, Creative Partnerships, Derby
Qualifications and training
- 2006 currently studying for PhD in Fine Art & Philosophy, Staffordshire University, part-time
Solo exhibitions
- 2008 'Grace & Danger' & Related Works, Wirksworth Festival, Wirksworth, Derbyshire
- 2005 'Horizon', Wirksworth Festival, Wirksworth, Derbyshire
- 2003 'Reprise', Sudbury Hall & Museum of Childhood, Sudbury
- 2000 Infinity, site-specific artwork installed in Lime Kiln Quarry now Stoneywood, Wirksworth, Derbyshire, officially opened to public May 2001
- 1995 Large Scale Works on Canvas, Leicester City Gallery
- 1995 Works on Paper and Canvas, Flaxman Gallery, Staffordshire University
- 1993 Works on Paper, Ikon, Touring
- 1993 Works on Paper, Metro Cinema Gallery, Derby
- 1992 Large Scale works, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
- 1992 Works on Paper, Angel Row, Touring
- 1992 Works on Loan to Director, Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham, now in Nottingham Trent Collection
Group exhibitions
- 2010 Re-Semble, Blacksmiths Yard, Derby
- 2009 'Grace & Danger' Series, Ashbourne Town Hall, Ashbourne, Derbyshire
- 2002 First Contact, exhibition of intagio prints from 1st an 2nd summer courses, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
- 2000 Geography, four large-scale drawings on paper, Stroud House Gallery, Gloucestershire
- 1999 ' In Parenthesis', site-specific, Real Gallery, New York, Atlantic collaboration with American artist Darren Kraft exploring art and process through drawing
- 1993 Digging up the Land, Works on Paper, Ikon, Touring
- 1990 Art 90, Representing Angel Row, Islington Design Centre
- 1989 Bankside Gallery, London
- 1988 A Dozen of Each, Drawings, East Midlands Arts, Touring
- 1988 Watercolours and Large Scale, Abbott Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Cumbria, Royal Watercolour Society Open
Private commissions
- 2002 'Hungerford Bridge', Working Title Films, 'Love Actually'
