Biography / Themes
I am an English international visual artist currently living in Brittany - 'La Bretagne'. My galerie/atelier is here, and I exhibit my work in France and the UK.
I have made the transition from living and working for most of my life in an industrial / post-industrial city in the Potteries area in the heart of England - the epitome of urbanisation, to the complete opposite (if that is the right description) - rural Brittany, with its wide open spaces, beautiful traditions, love of nature, respect for the environment and amazing 'patrimoine' - a respect for history and heritage.
I have two main subject areas: the natural landscape - focussing on the intricate form of trees; and urban landscape - focussing on abandoned buildings.
I search characterful buildings with interesting textures and architectural features, which have elements of a human connection (a history), that capture a moment in time.
Growing up in a heavily industrialised/post-industrial, urbanised city meant that there was a plentiful supply of subject matter: old abandoned factories and terraced houses - and lots of them - it was a wasteland.
No wonder then, that I searched a sort of equilibrium - an antidote to the empty, broken buildings. Having a national park not too far away from the urban sprawl soon formed a love of the powerful force of nature that shaped the natural environment.
Trees became a silent metaphor for the human condition: creating a balance.
Natural forms against the man made.
The claustrophobia of a post-industrial landscape versus the freedom of wide open spaces.
Whether I am investigating the character of an abandoned building, be it an old doorway, a shop front or a derelict terraced house, or drawing the distressed windswept branches of a moorland tree or the interaction between a group of trees - the subject is of equal importance.
Often I will return to the same scene to see the how time, the seasons or the changing climate have affected the subject.
These two enduring themes are and always will be constant in my art.
Interviews:
Saint Brisson sur Loire Interview 18 Octobre 2025
Maison Caillebotte, Yerres, Paris with Pastellistes de France