My landscape art reflects my abiding interest in the South of England Wessex region and its rich array of natural historical and archaeological features.
My work also reflects, in part, my interest in Thomas Hardy’s verbal-visual representation of the Wessex landscape; an interest that grew during my study of Fine Art and later doctoral research in English Literature.
Much of my work focuses on diverse aspects of the Dorset landscape – such as downlands, heaths, river-valleys, earthworks and barrows – which speak of time and contain visual paradoxes formed by constantly shifting perspectives between old and new, durability and instability, life and death.
Equally, my predominant use of chiaroscuro in my work is intended to dramatize the relation between past and present, the seen and the unseen in prehistoric landscapes and whereby particular shapes in the landscape – contours, curves, lines, circles, angles – invite contemplation of the long sequence of natural and human events integral to their visual formation.
I have exhibited my drawings in private and public galleries and held large solo exhibitions, for example, in The Dorset County Museum (2000), Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum (2004) and The Wiltshire Museum (2007). More recently (2011-2012), my drawings were shown in these Museums as part of a group exhibition – featuring the artists Dave Gunning and David Inshaw – and entitled ‘ Landscapes of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex ‘. This touring exhibition grew out of a shared visual response to the antiquity of the Wessex landscape and its atmospheric presence.
My work is in public collections – in particular, The Dorset County Museum, Wiltshire Museum Yorkshire Arts Association and Bedfordshire Education Authority – and private national and international collections. In addition, my literary background has led to the publication of several of my articles in The Thomas Hardy Journal.
Exhibitions featuring my work have featured in regional newspapers, magazines, literary journals and on the BBC regional television and website.
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