Artist statement
Artist Statement
Concepts
My work is concerned with the experience of landscape and the notion of a sense of place. This is drawn from the North European landscape tradition, mediated by practice, a material awareness always to the fore, but post modernism, the work of the archaeologist and the continuing search for a public role for the things that I make are part of the mix. I like the notion of public art and am drawn to the idea that it might be possible to make complicated objects which work on different levels, fulfilling a design brief, being contemporary rather than nostalgic or sentimental, and being meaningful with reference to the history or use of a place.
Influences
I have great regard for those who live and work in the landscape, and how this lived experience might mesh with those who are obliged to look on, walking, drawing, stone carving, woodcarving, using a camera, making some kind of mediation with what can be seen, felt, researched and affordably done. Recent work in cast iron offers references to an industrial heritage still with us and the possibility of a shared culture of making (this has to be done with other people) a pleasing antidote to the quiet and solitude of the studio based practitioner.
Career Path
I spent a year in Italy on a Rome Scholarship in Sculpture, where I gained a regard for the work of the archaeologist, and their patient unlayering of the ground as a part of what they do, - history and time revealed in the present. Of great interest was the material power of the objects through which this communication was achieved. My fascination with a sculpted/made object remains undiminished. I worked for many years in the North East of England, exhibiting widely with the Newcastle group, and was appointed Subject Leader in Sculpture at the University of Wolverhampton in 1992. I relinquished my work there in 2006, and have established a new studio in Mid Wales where I continue to make work which addresses the varied experience of landscape. I draw, work in wood, iron and stone, and hope to make new sited works both in the UK and at various international carving symposia.
Qualifications and training
- 1975 Rome Scholarship in Sculpture, British School at Rome, Rome
- 1975 MFA, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upopn Tyne
- 1973 BA, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne
Solo exhibitions
- 2011 Excavations In Time, The Rodd, Sidney Nolan Trust, Presteigne
- 2007 Excavations In Time, Qube Gallery, Oswestry
- 2006 Excavations on Paper, Qube Gallery, Oswestry
- 2005 Outside Inside, Custard Factory, Birmingham (more info)
- 1997 Light on Stone, Lichfield Cathedral, Litchfield International Arts Festival
Group exhibitions
- 2011 Four Artists, The Old Beehive Bakery, Llanfair Caereinion
- 2011 Powys Arts Month, Powys, Mid Wales
- 2010 Interventions 2010, Llanfyllin Workhouse, Llanfyllin
- 2010 Ironstone, Kidwelly Castle, Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire
- 2009 Interventions 2009, Cymru Danmark, Llanfyllin, Powys, Llanfyllin town, School and Workhouse
- 2009 Stone Carving Symposium, Horice International Sculpture Symposium, Horice and Hradek Kralove, Czech Republic
- 2009 Art in the Garden, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens,, Winchester
- 2009 Energy was in the air. Newcastle Group 1984-2009, The University Gallery, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne
- 2008 Roldan International Sculpture Symposium, City of Roldan, Argentina
- 2008 Sculpture Week, The Sidney Nolan Trust, The Rodd, Presteigne, Powys
- 2008 Interventions, Llanfyllin Workhouse, Llanfyllin, Powys
- 2007 Caerleon International Sculpture Symposium, Caerleon Arts Festival, Caerleon on Usk
- 2006 Art in the Garden, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire
- 2006 International Sculpture Symposium, De Stenen Poort, Borkel En Schaft, Netherlands
- 2006 Ironbridge06 Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust, Ironbridge
- 2005 for and from, Metropole Galleries, Folkestone
- 2005 Small Monuments, Galerie Donkersvoort, Beek en Donk, Holland
- 2004 Lake Vyrnwy Sculpture Symposium, Lake Vyrnwy Sculpture Trail, Lake Vyrnwy
- 2003 Blok, Abbey Grounds, Canterbury
- 2002 Beijing Sculpture Symposium, Beijing International Sculpture Park, Beijing, China
- 2002 Solid State, Stone carving exhibition, Burghley Sculpture Garden.
- 1999 Harlech Biennale, Harlech, Wales
- 1999 Tree of Life, New Life Centre, Newcastle Group, Newcastle upon Tyne
- 1998 The Third Area, printmaking show, Newcastle Group, Gateshead Library, Gateshead
- 1997 Newcastle Group Exhibition, touring, Australia, Newcastle Regional Gallery, New South Wales and Penrith Regional Art Gallery
- 1996 Harlech Biennale, Harlech, Wales
Intervention
- 2011 Iron Boulders, The Quaker Meeting House, near Pontrobert
Other
- 2006 Co- chair International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art, Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust, Ironbridge
