MY project.

    I started taking this "art thing" seriously around 1995/6 whilst living in Oxford. I ran my first life-drawing groups, took part in exhibitions and even, much to my surprise, sold art I'd created. However, I was under no illusions of success and was well aware of how little I knew. As I've aged and become more experienced, I'm still aware of how much more there is to explore in my little corner of the art world.
    This project was "supposed" to have happened in 2020, 25yrs after I got serious about art but as we all know CoVid came along. The pandemic took priority over everyone's lives, and some people's deaths. October 2020 a friend I had been looking after died due to CoVid.
​    Thus my project restarts in 2021 in the hope that some normality has returned and that we still have life to celebrate living!

Thin Line Minimalisation & Ultra Contrast

These "thin line" pictures are a technique I want to explore. I'm always looking for new ways to abstract reality. Here, I'm using single line and ultra strong contrast between black and white, within tight framing. The woman on the right is actually quite recognisable (if you knew her), in single lines I've caught her personality and elemental shape. The picture to the left, I would seek to abstract even more, I want the viewer to have to work out "what they're looking at" within the total minimalisation of line and form.

Concrete Fresco / Concrete Texture / Gold Leaf

Around 2006 I started playing with quick setting cement on canvas and introducing acrylic paints and gold leaf to the mix. I enjoyed abstracting the female form, whilst throwing paint and wet cement on to the canvas. The resulting pictures were bold, hard, extreme and very "golden". These pictures above represent this period of "mould breaking" for me. "Red woman on green background" was a rapidly painted with acrylic paints on to a surface of highly textured quick setting cement, on canvas. Few pictures remain from this period due to contracting a computer virus. (I lost 3 years of archive photos and learnt the importance of a good backup system!). The lady sitting for me here, was the semi-clad Art Feature Writer for the Manchester Metro Newspaper! After this I enjoyed a free double page spread in the newspaper and a successful exhibition at "Bistro West" in Didsbury, Manchester. Then with a change of my personal circumstances I didn't pursue technique any further. Though, was very fortunate to sell all my remaining cement-fresco artworks at an exhibition at "Felicinni" in Eccles the same year.
​- I want to revisit and extend this technique, which, after-all, is totally unique to ME!! (few artists can make so bold a statement)