News

1 February 2023

The Photography Season at the RWA, Bristol, (ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADAMY OF ART) opened on Thursday 26 January. This photograph, entitled ‘Domestic Incident’, was taken in January 2022 in Vancouver, at the home of my son and his family, with snow outside. My attention was caught by reflections in the glass on a picture on their wall. The central swirling lines are part of my monoprint ‘The Space Between’. The photograph was taken with a single shot, no manipulation.
I liked the mysterious combination of inside and outside. Evidently the judges did not as my work was not selected.
In 2008 I curated the RWA’s first Open Photography exhibition, ‘Through the Lens’ and also the second one in 2011.
The current Photography Season at the RWA continues until May 8

12 December 2023

I am very pleased to see two examples of my work from Bristol Museum and Art Gallery’s collection now hung in the Contemporary Art Gallery, between Terry Frost and Barbara Hepworth. The two paperworks, entitled ‘Earthwork’ and ‘Triptych, incorporate Bristol’s red earth, obtained from local construction sites.

29 June 2022

A London themed exhibition at Bankside Gallery (next to Tate Modern) includes two of my Mornington Crescent monoprints. The stimulus for these was the BBC Radio 4 comedy gameshow ‘I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue’, in which the contestants plot a fantasy route through the London transport system to arrive at Mornington Crescent.

The exhibition can be seen until Sunday 10th July (closed Mondays) and also online.

27 May 2022

Friday morning starts with a surprise. An email from a friend tells me that an image of mine is on the letters page of the Daily Telegraph. A quick trip to the corner shop reveals that my linocut repeat pattern has been used to draw attention to two letters on the problem of aphids on roses.

The Telegraph letters page editor had located my design via Bridgeman Images. Only one pattern sheet has ever been printed and this unique item now belongs in Dongguan Art Museum, South China. Three over-printings are required to produce each Ladybird unit, but these individual images can be available now.

22 April 2022

I was surprised and delighted to receive an email asking if I was the maker of a handwritten and bound book about Kew Gardens, made in the 1960s. I made this book when I was a student at St Mary’s College in Twickenham, and it was retained by the tutors at the time, along with some ceramic pieces and paintings. I had often wondered what became of it so to be reunited with it by this message was astonishing.

A trip to London, to the Rare Books Fair in Chelsea, allowed me to handle it and to take photographs, and to think about that time sixty years ago when I painted the illustrations and wrote the text. The current owner purchased it in an auction and intends to resell it…

8^th February 2021

I am very pleased with this use of my image ‘Walking, Talking and Standing Still’ on the dust jacket of ‘Border Lines, Poems of Migration’, one in the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets. The original relief print has been exhibited in the UK, Poland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria and finally China where it remains in the collection of Dongguan Art Museum.

23 Dec 2020

Recently, whilst not looking for it, I came across this linocut I made about twenty-five years ago. The inspiration came from the book ‘Notations’ edited by John Cage.  This quotation, from the largely forgotten composer Adolph Weiss, appealed to me. With irony there is always the risk that it will be taken literally.

This recently printed version is made more colourful by the use of small pieces of my own paper. I have the idea that it might appeal to some people as a poster – a low cost reproduction. So in the New Year I will commission this and see what happens. Over the years I have made quite a few works featuring text and this design fits into that series.

30 Nov 2020

Four recent paper and print works of mine are included in the forthcoming RWA Winter Exhibition. However because of Tier 3 regulations it cannot be visited at the RWA Galleries until January 2^nd The whole exhibition can be seen online from Wednesday 2^nd December.

I began making ‘The Space Between’ (above, 32 x 68 cm) in May when I was recovering from pneumonia and continued over a period of months before and during the first lockdown. The materials are balls of different coloured paper pulp, painted with gouache and fixed on a backing which has been printed with a relief etching. The painting process on the pulp balls was repetitive and exacting.

23 September 2020

During the early weeks of lockdown I continued to regain energy and began making new work with paper pulp – in two and three dimensions – and new digital designs. However these were not selected for the open exhibitions I submitted them for.  Then for Bankside Gallery’s summer exhibition I selected some earlier work that seemed to me to be relevant to the times. Other people thought so too and sales were made!

4 August 2020

As for many artists of all kinds 2020 has not been a boom year. It began well with two works accepted online for the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition. However out of the blue came two ‘torpedoes’ – Covid 19 virus and then a period of illness for myself.

This began with a serious but routine operation.   The operation went well but my recovery didn’t as I developed pneumonia.   Recuperation from this lasted more than five weeks – just in time for COVID 19 lockdown.   All planned projects were cancelled.   My two works already delivered to the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh were included in the online only exhibition and eventually returned.

During this period I was struggling with a commissioned essay from the China National Print Museum, near Shenzhen, on the subject of Art Education. I found the task difficult because I had no information about the purpose of my text or the potential readership. Also I wanted to avoid extreme challenges to the translator. My experiences of art education are mainly UK based and personal. I supplemented my account by calling on some of my international artist friends to send me stories of their own experiences. ‘Lifelong Learning’ was my focus.