My practice is an exploration of the beauty, fragility and vulnerability of the natural world.
My practice is an exploration of the beauty, fragility and vulnerability of the natural world.
I am interested in our current relationship with the natural world and I like to emulate the sense of awe and wonder associated with the cabinets of curiosities that were first established in the seventeenth century in an attempt to categorise and tell stories about the wonders of the natural world and offering a strange link between ancient myth and scientific reality.
Some of my work represents current facts - drawings such as "Plight of the bumblebees' and 'Fading beauties' depict the actual number of species of bumblebees and butterflies currently critically endangered in UK.
There are also symbolic references, for example crows are associated with prophecy whilst moths are associated with vulnerability.
Some of the work uses processes that are fragile in nature - the images with smoke are made using a candle that deposits soot on the paper. And cyanotypes are a camera-less photographic process using uv light to create an image. Both techniques have an element of unpredictability.
Qualifications
2006 - MA Fine Art (Distinction), Birmingham City University, Birmingham
2005 - BA Fine Art (First Class Honours), Birmingham City University, Birmingham
Solo exhibitions
2018 - Awe and Wonder, Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery (Nov/Dec)
2018 - Fragile, Number 8 Gallery, Pershore
2012 - I have glimpsed the future, Aedas, Birmingham
2011 - I am not myself, VINYL, Birmingham
2 Person Exhibitions
2017 - Foreshadow, Showcase gallery, Birmingham
2016 - Foreshadow, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
2014 - A Sign of the Times, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
2013 - Shadow, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
2013 - A Sign of the Times, Midland Art Centre, Birmingham
Selected Group exhibitions
2019 - PrizePhotography Exhibtion, RBSA, Birmingham
2016 - Ruskin Drawing Prize, Walsall and London
2016 - Wirksworth Arts Festival, Wirksworth
2015 - Shoosmiths Art Prize, Milton Keynes
2015 - The Big Hoot, Birmingham
2014 - Shoosmiths Art Prize, Milton Keynes
2014 - West Midlands Open 2014
2011 - London Group Open, Cello Factory, London
2008 - Jerwood Drawing prize Exhibition, Various, London, Cheltenham, Winchester, Bury St Edmunds, Durham
Residencies and Projects
2018 - Portrait of an Alternative Anatomy; A Turn for the Better, Birmingham
2014 - Soul to Sole, Croome Court, Worcester
2009 - Unnatural Selection, Rea Garden, Birmingham
Public Commissions
2017 - The Big Sleuth, Birmingham
2015 - The Big Hoot, Birmingham
