(please credit any image downloads you use)
Welcome. I work freelance as an artist designer writer (hence ‘Art Design Narrative’). I teach art classes and tutor art groups.
◄’Rough Sea Stony Cove, Anglesey‘ an acrylic version
of an earlier watercolour (private collection). Welsh subjects and in particular those from the coastline of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) made on prolonged and frequent stays to the island figure under one of the menu headings on the site.
Here you’ll find drawings, paintings and prints, as well as short video pieces. My core drawing interest is with life drawing and the ongoing search to make it relevant to now. (If you haven’t looked at the life drawings page, you haven’t really seen my work.)
But you can also find portrait sketches, landscapes and still lifes, graphic art, plus a bit of other silly stuff chucked in for good measure.
Under paintings you
can find ‘experimental’ projects – such as interviews and narratives – trails started down and to be followed further when I can. ‘Life in 2-D‘ was a theme that began to explore our lives lived out through the screens of movie, TV and computers.
‘Small town Middle England’ is another theme I explore through narrative scenes of spaces in North-West UK populated by figures that have become like stock characters. These paintings play with expressionistic line, colour and scale to create heightened mood. The idea is the images show a slice of life through many similar UK towns in the times we’re living through.
► Small Town Middle England #1 acrylic on canvas (private collection)
◄ Small Town Middle England #2: Closure acrylic on canvas (private collection)
There’s quite a bit of crossover between visual art and then the writings about these places (and others) in the form of illustrated poetic fictions, such as in ‘The bottle Kiln‘ co-authored with Eva Bennett.
The books are another meeting place for text and image, a chance to ‘draw’ characters in words, use humour and illustrate – usually graphically with photo-based imagery but also with quirky drawings.
Under ‘learning resources+‘ is practical content that I hope will be of help to students of the art classes I run. (But there’s munchy stuff there for anyone with an interest in the philosophy of visual arts to chew over.)
Under ‘drawing books‘ and ‘watercolour books‘ you’ll find publications that support the practical projects I run specifically for those courses, so that anyone anywhere can try them for themselves.
I do take on commissions for artwork – so if you’ve something in mind – be it a ‘straight forward’ landscape (a view significant to you and a friend, for instance) or a portrait (even one with a cheeky speech/thought bubble or two!) why not get in touch? (Though many of the images on this site are sold, I’ve often made new pieces for people based on the ones here. A ‘re-made’ image is as unique as the next and can be as successful and possibly more so.) ► The Watch Tower:RAF Valley, Anglesey gouache on Arches paper (private collection)
If you’re interested in my work or if you’d like me to run some classes for you, please contact me via the email address or number in the header image. I’m always happy to ‘talk shop’.
◄ There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook… mixed media collage
◄ Myth: the last book on Earth stencilled acrylic paint on canvas 2016 (painting made to accompany a bookshop drawing demo/talk)