Gallerina

Full and fecund open peony flowers bask in the Sevillian courtyards sunshine. Their luscious and abundant as the light ever-changing dances over their fleeting blooms.

The work is inspired by the resplendent chiaroscuro and luminous qualities of the work of one of Seville’s lustrous Baroque artists ‘Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’, best known for his religious works but also capturing the soul and life of the place and people. in In particular after “Iconography of Porciúncula” - the miracle of celestial falling flowers from the heavens.

Oil and mixed media on Arches Oil Paper 130 w x 80 h cm unframed 145 w x 95 h cm framed

Many Roman gardens included an internal peristyle, an open space surrounded by a colonnade. Designed as places of peace and tranquility, refuge from urban life, they were spaces filled with religious and symbolic meaning. Ornamental horticulture because highly developed in Roman times, influenced by foreign civilizations. Plants were both cultivated locally and imported. The garden frescos prominently feature specific species of plants - noteably iris, lilies and daisies. Flowers were cultivated for aesthetic purposes and their ethereal qualities used for both ceremony and for perfume.

87 w x 67 h (Framed 113 w x 92 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame.

Part of the series of Sunflower paintings tracking the light from dawn to dusk. I admire the enchanting vibrancy, variety and luminosity of the sunflower in many of the formal English country gardens that I have always adored. They remind of warmer climes and sun filled days. Perhaps they have become part of an illusion of a place, a time or a feeling that cemented into my mind -like an architectural structure - of freedom, free-thoughts and the happiest of days.

80.5 w x 130 h cm Unframed (Framed size 93.5 w x 144 h cm Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper (Framed in modern gilded slim frame floating on mount glazed )

Part of the series of Sunflower paintings tracking the light from dawn to dusk. The sunflower field epitomises the cycle of life and light at every stage. Helianthus ‘annus'. The name is derived from the Greek words Helious, meaning sun, and anthos, meaning flower, thus the name sunflower. The opalescent pale yellow lights of daybreak, the colours of the stems are desaturated and the cadmium yellow of the sunflowers heads unfurl as they begin to wake and lift their heads to the rising sun.

80.5 w x 130 h cm Unframed (Framed size 93.5 w x 144 h cm Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper (Framed in modern gilded slim frame floating on mount glazed )

Part of the series of Sunflower paintings tracking the light from dawn to dusk. The sunflower petals catch the light in the fleeting golden hour as dusk falls. I try to capture this small moment of perfection as the light briefly kisses the petals of the flower. The moment is lucid and I am immersed in this field of giants.

80.5 w x 130 h cm Unframed (Framed size 93.5 w x 144 h cm Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper (Framed in modern gilded slim frame floating on mount glazed )

Part of the series of Sunflower paintings tracking the light from dawn to dusk. Perfect bright yellow faces raise up to the grey windy skies above, awaiting the sun to enrich their joyous blooms. Some are clenched in tight in almost-alien bud waiting to burst open when the sun arrives and gives them energy as it casts radiant glimmering light upon them. Other more matured flowers have large open petals are becoming slowly torn by the winds, but are lucid, big and beautiful nonetheless. Petals like crepe paper Matisse-like cut-outs. But after that moment which is not their end, some have reached their point of turning to seed, their dark centres become heavy monolithic, engorged with glistening seeds - a bountiful provision, a harvest for the birds.

80.5 w x 130 h cm Unframed (Framed size 93.5 w x 144 h cm Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper (Framed in modern gilded slim frame floating on mount glazed )

Part of the series of Sunflower paintings tracking the light from dawn to dusk.

It's midday, the skies are the ultimate shade of ceruleum blue, bright, saturated with colour and effervescent. This beautiful variety of burgundy sunflower with red to peach petals catch rays of golden light creating a Heavenly illusion of aurole.

80.5 w x 130 h cm Unframed (Framed size 93.5 w x 144 h cm Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper (Framed in modern gilded slim frame floating on mount glazed )

Part of the series of Sunflower paintings tracking the light from dawn to dusk.

The sunflower at sunset, the heavy seeded heads of the flower illuminate and glow against their darkening foliage, a glimer of blue sky in the background.

The species name annus refers to the plant's annual life cycle. It made a lasting impression, burning imprinted shapes in my mind - not just of their shadows, light, structure and colour-But of their importance and necessity to life. I wanted the paintings to be explosions of light shape and colour. Like fireworks, or deep space star constellations. An imagined place full of light and joy.

80.5 w x 130 h cm Unframed (Framed size 93.5 w x 144 h cm Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper (Framed in modern gilded slim frame floating on mount glazed )

The Sea Poppy from last year's Summer still resonates. It proliferates and climbs hostile surfaces of exposed stone, taking hold in the smallest cracks against the elements.

Skies become seas, and the swathes my California Tree Poppy - the tides. My garden's banks become rocky edges of land. My memory of those past days in my favourite coastal places: from Lanzarote to St Ives; and Llanddwyn, on Anglesea - I recall exploring the wild coast lines and discovering this exceptional beauty surviving and flourishing against all odds.

130 w x 90 h cm

Oil, raw pigment and pastel on Arches Oil paint paper

Gold and silver light licks the shape of leaves of the Tree Poppy in the sunlight, shadows become pools of blue light. The early Summer garden becomes a place you could dive deep into.

Named Grotto Azzurra after the Blue Grotto sea cave of Capri - sunlight passes through the water transforming the place, reflecting an incredible azure blue or emerald light. It is said that objects under water famously appear silver because of the dazzling light refraction. In Roman times, Emperor Tiberius used the Grotto as a marine temple and swimming hole - it was decorated with statues of the sea god Neptune and Triton.

130 w x 88 h cm

Oil and pastel on Arches Oil paint paper

This year I have spent most of the Summer observing the subtle changes of the garden. I've had the pleasure of this every day. A bank we planted a couple of years ago comes into full bloom. The Senecio Cineraria Silver Dust plant with its velvety dusty icing-sugared leaves proliferates and outreaches to the sun in great swathes like waves. It begins to resemble corals under the sea. I imagine great oceans and reefs and I'm transported there.

130 w x 91 cm

Oil, raw pigment and pastel on Arches Oil paint paper

Fioralba literally translates fiore "flower" and dawn "alba". A warm yellow ochre light illuminates the garden as the sun rises. The flowers, leaves and seed heads are burnt siena, emerald and gold.

130 w x 88 h cm

Oil and pastel on Arches Oil paint paper

Great papery petals of Italian papaver poppies signal Spring. Primavera means 'Spring'. The papaver symbolises peace, sleep, pleasure, hope and resilience. The giant flowers in the painting are dreamscape and enveloping.

92.5 w x 77 h cm (Framed size 115 w x 100 h cm)

Oil and gesso on board in large antique frame.

"Hortulus" ('little garden') 71.5 w x 48 h cm (84 x 60.5 cm Framed) Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

The Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, situated on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge. It was the headquarters and restricted living quarters of the city's (Tedeschi) merchants. True Merchants of Venice. For the first time in history there is now a viewing platform at the top of what is now a high-end Department Store and you can now see the South and North of the Grand canal - a great swept vista from high above, one that has never been painted (in my knowledge) before. It looks like an unreal perspective buy you can see the Rialto Bridge roof tops at your feet and Gondola that look like waterboatmen fleeting across the great Grand Canal surrounded by this Renaissance city and its burnt siena and red ochre walls. Magical!

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 123.5 w x 105 h cm (101 x 81.5 cm aperture)

Pompeii was the City of Eternal colours. Pigments from the depths of the Earth. Of marbles and stones, ruins and dust, terra rossa, red and yellow ochre, malachite, verdigris and azurite. The volcanic eruption of Vesuvius brought about an alchemical transformation - Pompeii's yellows were transformed to red. It was a world living and then brought back to life through colour. By 'Materia Prima'.

Materia Prima is about elements and raw material...the raw material of the world. It is the first matter in Universal terms. This painting contains almost every earth pigment in raw form.

**

"Prima materia" can be compared to everything "[...]to heaven and earth, to body and spirit, chaos, microcosm, and the confused mass; it contains in itself all colours and potentially all metals; there is nothing more wonderful in the world, for it begets itself, conceives itself, and gives birth to itself" - Paul Kugler ' The Alchemy of Discourse: Image, Sound and Psyche."

96 w x 77 h cm (Framed size 111w x 92h cm)

Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique hand-finished frame.

Like great Water Lily pads, the leaves and flowers of the Summer Nasturtiums overhang the terrace. Their leaves casting large puddles of shade and reflecting the brightest summer light.

Berossus, a Babylonian priest wrote about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in c. 290 BC "In this place he erected very high walls, supported by stone pillars; and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect of an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. He did this to gratify his queen {...}"

We create our own personal paradises in our gardens, we fortify our souls.

56.5 h x 77 w cm

Water-soluble pastel on watercolour paper

'Oleum Testa' - Oil and Shell in Latin. The amphora shape is an ancient storage jar used to carry oil at sea. It lies next to the mussel shell and paint pot - it is so still but full of anticipation of becoming a working object once again, being useful and brought to life. The mussel shell is of the sea and the paint pot with brushes the fulcrum of continuation.

Raw pigment, oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 79 w x 56h cm (67 x 44cm aperture)

22 x 19 cm unframed (Framed 30 x 28 cm)

Oil and gesso on board.

20 x 20 cm unframed (Framed 28.5 x 28.5 cm)

Oil, charcoal and gesso on board.

Oil and mixed media on Arches' Oil paper. Unframed size 130 cm w x 83 cm w. Framed size 180 cm w x 94 cm h.

Oil and mixed media on Arches' Oil paper. Unframed size 130 cm w x 83 cm h. Framed size 180 cm w x 94 cm h.

The studio table is strewn with purple blue mussel shells, pewter spoons and paint brushes. My paint stained cotton cloth which covers my table now has so much history it resembles the multitude of colour in sand. Treasures, collections, reminders of moments past. The mussel shells remind me of Venice, its deep vast lagoon waters...and a recent windswept walk down Hunmanby Gap beach near Filey on the East Yorkshire Coast (my dogs have the wind in their ears and a spring in their step!) The mussels have this incredible colour that changes in the light...little treasures.

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 68 w x 58 h cm (50 x 40 cm aperture)

Liber - meaning 'book' and also meaning 'free'. The painting contains a carved wooden hand of a gilded saint grasping his book. The Medieval jug from a Mediterranean shipwreck. It is filled with Summer flowers from the garden, Nasturtiums from my terrace.

In the Medieval garden cultivation of food was key. The luminous nasturtium flowers were one of the most popular flowers grown. The book "Hortulus Animae: Little Garden of the Soul" was an illustrated prayer book paying special attention to the enclosed monastic garden and herb garden and its importance to enrich and enlighten the soul.

55.5 w x 67 h cm (Framed size 71 w x 82 h cm)

Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame.

On the tiny green wooden painted artist's chair ' Sella' sits my blacksmiths' leather tool bag full of my oil paints - the tools of my trade.

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 89 w x 100 h cm (55 x 67 cm aperture)

59 x 42cm

Charcoal, watercolour and Indian ink on watercolour paper.

59 x 42cm

Charcoal, conte on watercolour paper.

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

126 x 67cm (136 x 76.5cm Framed)

Capturing and celebrating the energy of autumn - a display of berries, Chinese Palm fruit, autumn leaves, red velvet roses and hydrangeas. At the change of the season I love to fill my studio with giant displays of beautiful flowers with capture the feeling of the change of colours and textures each season brings. 120.5 x 100 cm unframed size.

'Ave Maria' lemons from the lemon groves near Seville! This still life also houses a small Medieval monastery offering bowl from the area.

47 x 56 cm ( Framed 72 x 80.5 cm )

Oil and gesso on board in hand-finished antique frame.

122 x 137cm (Framed 134 x 149.5cm)

OIl and gesso on board.

59 x 42cm

Charcoal and conte on watercolour paper.

59 x 42cm

Charcoal and Indian Ink on watercolour paper.

The Gondolier emerges from the mists and makes his way into the mouth of the Grand Canal in Venice. He carries a precious cargo of storage jars with oils, herbs and spices from far flung lands. For centuries, the gondola was "The Chief" means of transportation and most common watercraft within Venice, thousands of the Gondola would have travelled down the Venice waterways - these are the true heros and the Merchants of Venice.

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 95 w x 77 h cm (77 x 59 cm aperture)

Calle Del Filosi in Venice near Campo San Polo is a tiny dusky red high walled street wide overlooking the most striking deep lagoon emerald Merchants doorway with what looks like a disused space behind - above the doorway are balconies full of geraniums celebrating 'a Venetian lives here!' and Gondoliers smooth past on the milky turquoise waters that cut through. The colour and light of this place are such that your eyes are bleached on first impression - all you can make our is this faded impression before your eyes are filled with colour from from the illuminated light and the shade.

Oil, raw pigment, gesso and graphite on board in antique frame.

Framed 82 w x 90 h cm (58.5 x 68.5 cm aperture)

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 84 w x 66 h cm (61 x 43 cm aperture)

Oil, ink and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 74 x 55.5cm

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

Framed 79 x 93cm

Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.

102 x 79cm (108 x 85.5cm Framed)

151 x 122 cm

122 x 93.5 cm

74 x 47.5 cm

59 x 64 cm

115 x 122 cm

101 x 122 cm

Friend of the fig "Philosykos". 40.5 x 30.5cm inc. antique frame.

Oil, dammar and gesso on board in antique frame.

114 x 83 cm (inc. frame)

A collection of everyday objects, although antique, used and loved. Galvanised garden torches, industrial halogen light silver, huge rusty old nails and verdigris ball cocks. All speak together in this rhythmic almost 'floral' arrangement exploring composition, colour and patina. 44 x 55 cm (53 x 63 cm framed) Mixed media on paper.

The sense of our provenance, where we come from, our roots, our ancestry. The simple form of the jug used since our earliest history crossing eras in every context. 42 x 52cm (53 x 63 cm framed). Mixed media on paper.