I am currently showing 4 pieces in the Empower exhibition at the Mill Gallery in Banbury; the show there runs until the new year.
I will also be selling my work at the West Oxford Arts & Crafts Christmas Show in the West Oxford Community Centre on the Botley Rd this weekend (23 and 24 November). The opening times are: Saturday 23 November 11am - 6pm and Sunday 24 November 11am - 4pm. 28 local artists will be showing a wide variety of lovely work including: paintings, prints, photography, ceramics, textiles and home furnishings, fused glass, turned wood, jewellery, Christmas decorations, books, calendars, cards and much, much more. As well as recent, original work I will be selling placemats, coasters, mouse mats, cards, calendars, and possibly mugs, with my artwork on; prints of my work; and handmade Christmas decorations from recycled materials. Come and buy gifts with a difference direct from the makers. The wonderful Tumbling Bay Cafe, selling hot and cold food and drink will be open throughout
As an artist, I am largely self-taught: I took Art A-level but then read Classics at University here rather than going to Art school. I have drawn and painted throughout my life but much more so since my return to Oxford to live in 1998.
I love trying to capture people in action or engrossed in activity but I can be inspired by anything I see around me, particularly if it involves powerful forms, strong light and shade or strong emotions. Most of what I produce is representational - I like how the world around me looks too much to let go of it very often - although my work is probably moving more towards abstraction at the moment.
The focus of a lot of my recent work has been on the idea of "identity", using my love of ancient Greek sculpture and art as a framework for this and drawing on Greek statuary and myth to help me express ideas about personal identity and personal experience. In the past year or so I have also returned to an old love - life drawing - and this underpins a lot of what I am working on at the moment. I really want to thank all the other artists who go to Botley Life Drawing (see site 167), and Ali Hogg (who set the drawing group up) in particular, for creating such a stimulating environment .
For this year's show I will be bringing along some of my life studies from Botley Lifers and OVADA (where I also did some lovely Life Drawing classes recently) - for these I tend to use a mix of graphite, chalk, pastel and, where there is time enough, collage (it is a slow medium) but I will also be showing work which I have created working from my life drawings (such as my pieces "Intervals" and "Autumn Gathering", both included in my Gallery). I am really enjoying exploring the possibilities of colour at the moment, and the interplay of the various, different media. This is a direction in which I intend to continue. It is important to me to prepare my own collage papers using acrylic paints, to give myself a wide range of different textures and subtle colours which I know will stay true over time.
I hope also to bring along some other work developing the theme of "identity" but I can't say much about this at the moment as I am still working on it - watch this space
As well as exhibiting at the West Oxford Community Centre, I am also showing some life drawings, and possibly some other work, at the Louie Memorial Pavilion (site 167 – in Arnold’s Way) as part of the Botley Drawing Group.