Mixed media landscapes - "Taw Valley"
Acrylics and oil pastels.

I spent my college years at Exeter and used to go out to Dartmoor and absorb the atmosphere. I developed oil pastels as a supporting drawing medium for my ceramic works, using my clay tools to work them.


Oil pastels are an underrated medium which I find best used with layering, blending and scraffito techniques.

"Below Cissbury" - mixed media.

Sometimes it's the quick and spontaneous that I value.

This piece was done as a demonstration in the use of oil pastel as a resist medium. Being brave with the washes of watercolour over switches the dramatic lighting effects on. This is the first of a series I've planned referencing favourite local landscape.

The vivid Russian watercolour used suits this style.

Art Blog - this is me!

I want this blog to be a snapshot into my art experiences. Last year (which has gone SOOO fast) I was doing a lot of soul searching about the diverse nature of my artistic endeavours. I'd begun to notice that artists who "make it" into mainstream galleries have a recogniseable identity which maybe leads them toward a specific path, and perhaps one that comes with certain constraints.

Thinking in a "corporate" sense, it would seem that the financially oriented gallery world tends to produce a "branded" artist. Collectors tend to identify with an artistic theme or individualism of style that an artist presents. It then becomes difficult for the artist to break away from that mould as they risk alienating their client base.

In an ideal world, we could all be producing artworks where the selling of them doesn't matter. But it does - some of us use art as their means of income - so various factors come to bear.

I ended up with deciding that I am who I am, and if that means I do a lot of different stuff then I'm going to celebrate that! It's an asset in teching as I can discuss a wider range of subjects, media and styles from an informed position.

So - the blog content is going to be about my experiences and how these relate to and influence my own artworks as they appear in various "streams" . Let's hope these streams flow into something you find inspirational in some way. 

Creating Art and Teaching.

For a multitude of reasons, it's time to get the message out there a bit larger and as I'm not on Facebook, a good friend gave me a link to this site which I think has great possibilities.

Creating art involves a reflective process in which it is sometimes useful to involve others.

Communication is also fundamental and has many facets in the process, from the building of a visual language with which, if an artist is lucky, they can engage with an observer on a whole different plane of experience.

Can the sublime be described in words? Or can a visual experience cut straight to the soul? I think the latter is most certainly the case.

Watch this space - there will be pictures, ceramic things and philosophy!