Exhibiting at home, my work is mostly drawings of everyday things in pen and ink or coloured pencil, with portraits and other works in oils. The show will include some drawings and prints from a series of over 1000 daily sketches made in small A6 sketchbooks between 2018 and 2020, and many new works. Limited edition giclée prints of individual images and montages, and some original pieces will be available for sale.
The venue can be found at the end of a short gravel drive, Mill Lane, opposite the Chequers Inn in Cassington. Turning is very restricted, so we kindly ask visitors park elsewhere in the village.
I have worked as a graphic designer, either running my own studios or working freelance, for over 30 years. Kick-started by a daily drawing project I began on New Year’s Day in 2018, and being now semi-retired, I enjoy spending more time drawing and painting. In September 2020 I made my 1,000th daily sketch and have taken a break from the commitment of a daily drawing to concentrate on more involved projects. I still mostly draw every-day things in pen & ink and coloured pencil but am also now devoting more time to oil painting and portraiture.
In 2018 one of my daily sketches, an ordinary kitchen grater, was accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and in July 2019 I had a solo exhibition, ‘365 Days and Counting’, at Hemingway Art, in Cassington, Oxford, featuring the 365 black and white drawings made in 2018 and other work.
In 2020 a portrait of friends, painted for their 50th Wedding anniversary, made it through the first round of judging for the BP Portrait Award, and I was delighted to take part in the Portraits for NHS Heroes initiative, started by talented local portrait artist Tom Croft, with a portrait of Lauren, a trainee paramedic and emergency ambulance driver, which appeared in both the online exhibition and book.
For the past year I've been very happy to have work each month in the Eynsham Art Window - 66 Mill Street, Eynsham - an initiative started by ceramic artist Alison Holmans (Chickenrun Studio) to feature the work of artists local to the Eynsham area.
I have enjoyed Artweeks as a visitor for many years and first decided to exhibit in 2020 which, thanks to lockdown, became online only. Undeterred I exhibited in 2021, with its ongoing restrictions, and am looking forward to this year’s event. Making the commitment to exhibit certainly helps to focus the mind.