My Oxfordshire Art Weeks exhibition is in my home and studio. The Coach House, Castle Street, is very central in Wallingford, with the Castle Meadows, Castle Gardens and the River Thames closeby.
Most of my paintings are inspired by the landscapes of the Ridgeway and the Chilterns. For many years, I lived in a small Buckinghamshire village close to Ivinghoe Beacon at the eastern end of the Ridgeway. I drew and painted the chalk downland of that area and further afield within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
I moved to Oxfordshire in 2021, first to Wantage, then to Wallingford where I am now settled. I am currently working on drawings and paintings depicting the landscapes of the Berkshire Downs close to Wantage.
At this exhibition, you'll see both recent and earlier work, as well as work in progress. My original paintings are professionally scanned and these scans are used to produce high quality, limited edition giclee prints. The exhibition will include these prints plus a wide range of cards.
The ceramicist Robyn Hardyman and the jeweller Kate Wilkinson are joining me at the Coach House for Oxfordshire Art Weeks.
The Coach House is just a few minutes walk from the central crossroads near Waitrose. Please park at one of the town centre car parks and walk to the crossroads. Castle Street goes north, with Boots Opticians and the Lamb Arcade either side of the street. The Coach House is on the right hand side through a pair of stone gateposts.
We look forward to welcoming you!
My landscape and still life paintings are characterised by strong lines and shapes, flattened planes and blocks of saturated colour.
The paintings consist of several layers of acrylic paint on a collaged base. I begin by drawing the composition onto board before collaging the whole surface with tissue paper. The drawn composition is important to me; when it begins to disappear beneath the layers of tissue, I re-draw it. I then paint in acrylics onto that collage base, focusing on the original drawing but also incorporating many of the shapes that originate from the tissue layer. My aim is a synthesis between the drawing and the more abstract collage, with the painted layer bringing the two together.
In my earlier artistic career, I worked as an illustrator, producing black and white, pen and ink drawings. My first, very vibrant paintings were a change of direction and reflected a desire to work in colour. I still use strong colours in my landscape paintings but they tend to be more natural - greens and yellows, blues and greys, oranges and browns.
Last spring, my painting ‘Ivinghoe Beacon from Steps Hill’ was judged Overall Winner in the Swire Ridgeway Arts Prize. This annual exhibition is coordinated by The Friends of the Ridgeway, a voluntary organisation that seeks to preserve and celebrate the Ridgeway National Trail.
In the autumn of 2019, my painting ‘Pulpit Wood’ won second prize in ‘The People’s Landscape’ exhibition at Claydon House. The exhibition was organized by The Courtyard Art Studio in conjunction with The National Trust.