Artist as observer: observational drawing, plein-air painting and photographic capture in its many forms are established and well-recognised tools of the artistic process. A participant observer is a term more commonly associated with an anthropologist who seeks qualitative data on … Read more
exhibited as part of `Watershed’ at blackShed gallery 2025 So far, my work with woodland has focused mainly on Bexhill Highwoods, the remnants of an ancient, worked, English woodland, where I have considered the importance of water and the watershed … Read more
As dusk settles and night approaches, we walk into the darkening woodland. At the edge of the path woven figures slip into silhouettes cloaking themselves in the woodland from which they were made. A torch becomes essential and when found … Read more
I suspect that when people think of charcoal they associate it with summer barbecues (weather permitting). When I think of charcoal it reminds me of life drawing classes and the thin twigs of willow charcoal used at college; messy smudges … Read more
We miss so much of what is there when we walk a pathway, a line through woodland. But the more effort we make to look, the more time we spend there, the more there is to see. Yet what we … Read more
Building upon the photographic research I carried out in Bexhill Highwoods during 2023, I embarked upon the annual art challenge for April 2024, #30Works30Days organised by ArtQuestLondon, intending to produce and share a piece of artwork daily. I spent April … Read more
In response to a commissioned Woodland Management Plan, the Bexhill Highwoods Preservation Society has been removing some holly trees and removing the lower branches of others. The intent is to improve the biodiversity of the understory and the balance of … Read more
St Leonards Churchyard, Hollington is known as `Church in the Wood’. It sits in the last remnants of an ancient woodland that used to cover much of the Hollington area. Churchyards are places not only of the dead – they … Read more
Lost in Execution – Bexhill Highwoods A residency involves interaction between place and artist; exploration and development of areas of a shared vocabulary. Ideas inherent and accumulated within the residency interact as part of a creative process. Interaction with people … Read more
Hindsight blinds; everything that could have happened, and many things that did, are cast into shadow as one path is chosen. Woodland is a system in which people historically integrated with their environment, maintaining and gaining substance and sustenance from … Read more
