I am interested in the co poiesis of painting - and its ecological conditions, in connection to the more ephemeral and fragile nature of displacement.
My paintings evolve in connection to places that generate intuitive associations and responses and my larger canvases suggest their form through a process of continual application,erasure, excavation and layering. Smaller works on paper develop alongside these larger works over time , often suggesting related thematic, etymological, symbolic or mythological subjectivites. I work abstractly with the gathering and collecting of information through drawing , field work and journals. I read widely and occasionally esoterically within on-going dialogues, collaborations, corresspondences and letters with poets and writers in relation to the fragility yet strengths of nature to re-inhabit places of /and /in its own accord and time.
Qualifications and training 1999 - Post Grad Diploma Fine Art , UWE , Bristol 1997 - BA Hons Degree/Fine Art, Bower Ashton UWE.
I have a studio at Spike Island, Bristol where I take part most years in the Spike Island 'Open Studios ' weekend - this gives me a valuable chance to meet people more informally in relation to current work in progress.
EXHIBITIONS : [solo & group]
1994; 'Veale Wasborough, Bristol. 2002 ; Spanish Barn,Torquay,Devon. 2004; The Great Barn, Exeter [Inauguration/launch of Artists website online platform 'Isendyouthis' ].- 'On The Wall' Olympia, London. 2005; 'Small Originals' Gallery 22, Devon. 2006; Oviedo Paintings, Shires Yard,Bath. - Brownestone Gallery ,Modbury ,Devon. 2007; 'Eventually I went to live across the Sea' [Monsoons - Pablo Neruda]. Quay Arts, Isle of Wight. - 'Mythological Landscapes' Northcote House Gallery, Exeter University, Devon. 2008; ' Penwith Paintings' Schoolhouse Gallery ,Morvah, Cornwall. 2012; 'Harbour 21' Grant Bradley Gallery,Bristol. - 'Art at the Heart', Royal United Hospital,Bath. 2013 'Anthologies', Jardine ,Wivenhoe, Essex. 2014; Salisbury Hospital, Wiltshire. - Victoria Gallery, Bath. 2015; Victoria Gallery,Bath. - Quay Arts , Isle of Wight. - Ventnor Botanic Gardens Studio 'The Hill Hassall Residency Exhibition' Ventnor ,Isle of Wight. 2016 ; 'The Hill Hassall Exhibition , Royal United Hospital, Bath. - 'Circadean Gardens' Circle Hospital, Bath. 2017; 'Two Stories, Olympus Gallery Dimbola Lodge Museum and Gallery, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. - 'The Hill Hassall Residency Exhibition' St Marys Hospital, Isle of Wight. - Paim Bookhouse Gallery , Pico Island, Azores. 2018; Paim Bookhouse Gallery , Azores Fringe. 2019; 'In Pico' , 'In Libris' , Porto, Portugal . - 3rd International Gaia Bienal, Portugal. - 'Garden of Earthly Delights ' FLUX Gallery, Bristol.
2020; 'In Pico', Exhibition and presentation of the 'Artists Book' project at the opening of the Montaha Festival 2020, Museu de Baleeiros, Lajes, Pico, Azores.
2020; ' 2020 ' Contemporary Painters, Centre Space, Bristol.
2020; Spike Island [virtual] 'Open' - paintersnetwork_sw 'online'.
2021; The Herbarium - World Book Night 2021, Bower Ashton Library, UWE ,Bristol .
2022; 'Sorrios de Pedra' 31 Charcoal drawings of Azorean Sculptor , Helena Amarels Volcanic Basalt Stone heads - Gubian Gallery , Rua de Torrinha , Porto ,Portugal - 19th March - 23rd April 2022.
2022; Ghosts in the Machine - World Book Night 2022 , Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol
2022: 'Sorrisos de Pedra - 9 Drawings' : Atlantico Teahouse, Madalena, Pico , Azores
2023 'Sorrisos de Pedra' - 9 Drawings : Gallery Museu dos Baleeiros, Lajes, Pico, Azores
RESIDENCIES - RESEARCH - TALKS
2009; 6 week Artist Residency, Convento Sao Francisco, Mertola, Portugal.
2014/15; 6 month ACE R&D residency, ' The Hill Hassall Residency' , Ventnor Botanic Gardens, Isle of Wight.
2014; Poet John Burnside Symposium, Portsmouth University [ invited as Artist/delegate].
2015 -2017 ; Visiting Artist Residency and Instalation Exhibition, working with the Julia Margaret Cameron , Dimbola Museum and Gallery Archive, Freshwater ,Isle of Wight.
2017; Ventnor Fringe Festival, Isle of Wight - Initiated and presented in collaboration with Ventnor Film Society, 'Two Stories' a screening and discussion event with the screen writer Hugh Stoddart, of the research and development behind the 2 year Dimbola Lodge residency focusing on the '1912 Slade Art School Picnic' and 'Bloomsbury on the Isle of Wight' and the Island 'as place' through [its] connections with the Artists and writers D.H.Lawrence , Helen Corke, Virginia Wolfe and Vanessa Bell and their correspondences and books - 'The Trespasser', 'In Our Infancy' ,'The Waves' ,'To The Lighthouse' and 'Two Stories' [ 'The Mark on the Wall' and 'The Three Jews'].
2019; Talk and presentation - 'A Sephardic Journey' DAVAR, Bristol.
2019; ' Periplus ' [outdoor installation ] - MiratecArts Open Air Gallery, Pico, Azores
2019; 'Behind the Scenes' - Studio talk, Spike Island, Bristol.
2017/18/19; Artist delegate, collaborative book presentations, exhibitor and researcher at the MiratecArts ' Encontrar Pedra Negra ' International Writers Festival , Fringe Festival, Azores.
2022; 'Sorrisos de Pedra' : book presentation and exhibition of drawings 'Encontrar Pedra Negra' 2022, Writers Festival - Madalena , Pico Island, Azores
AWARDS/GRANTS:
2006 - Spike Studio Grant - to attend as Artist delegate at 5 day International Conference 'Romanticism, Environment, Crisis' , Department of Literature, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
2008 - Oppenhiem John Downes Trust Award ; for development and instalation of Schoolhouse Gallery exhibition ,Mrovah, Cornwall.
2009 - Oppenhiem John Downes Trust Award ; Artists Residency , Convento Sao Fransisco, Mertola, Portugal.
2010 - Short listed for EAJC [European Assosiation of Jewish Culture] grant award for 'A Sephardic Journey ' the culmination of my diaspora residency work at the Convento Sao Francisco de Mertola, Portugal in 2009. This work attracted the attention of the Ben Uri Gallery, London and I was offered an exhibition / instalation with educational workshops at the Casa Guerra Junqueira Museum , Porto, Portugal [ this was unfortunately unable to proceed due to lack of funding ].
2014/15 - ACE - R&D Grant Award - for 'The Hill Hassall Residency' Ventnor Botanic Gardens, Isle of Wight. [ Arthur Hill Hassall was the founder of an innovative Victorian hospital that was once on the site of the Botanic Gardens. ] - I had an 'Open Studio' remit during my time at the garden to optimise its future potential, with the result that there is now a permanent Studio established at the Botanic Gardens.
2016 - Oppenhiem John Downes Trust Award - for the Installation and Archive research residency at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater, Isle of Wight.
2017 - Spike Studios grant award for travel, participation in the inauguration of Paim Bookhouse Gallery ,Pico, Azores and the research and development opportunities in connection to contemporary cultural engagements with Diaspora.
2021 - Oppenheim John Downes Trust Grant Award:
2022 - Eaton Fund Grant Award:
BOOKS and PUBLICATIONS:
2007. Public Cataloguing Foundation - Archive of Bristish Oil Paintings in Public Collections - 'EyeStone' [ 2006/07 ].
2016. 'Draping the Sky for a Snowfall' Julian Wolfreys , Triarchy Press , Poetry/Phenomenology - the book includes a selection of paintings produced during the ACE 2014/15 ' Hill Hassall Residency ' at Ventnor Botanic Garden ''......and takes us on a journey from the Isle of Wight across deserted fields to Northern and Central Europe and the coastline of the Baltic Sea. pausing to reflect on :' ... ' place - home - loss - translation - correspondence - grief - memory - narrative - mood - archive - chance - coincidence - love - absence - reading - allegory - imagination ...' [ this publication is now in the ' National Poetry Library Archive ', Southbank, London.]
2019. 'In Pico' a collaborative bi-lingual Artist book publication with Portuguese poet Jose Efe 23 prose texts / 23 drawings - published in partnership with 'In Libris' Porto, Portugal and Paim Bookhouse Gallery, Pico, Azores.
2021. 'Sorrisos de Pedra ' - 'Smiling Stones' - 31 drawings in a bi-lingual poetry publication [Portuguese /English ] 31 charcoal drawings in collaboration with 31 Portuguese Poets and writers in response to the Azorean sculptor Helena Amarels Volcanic Basalt stone heads.
