The iris has long been associated with transformation, its fleeting bloom marking the passage between Spring and Summer. Returning to the iris bed in my garden, I'm interested in their shifting dynamic presence as daylight fades and colour gives way to tone. Black Iris explores not just the flower itself, but the way memory and atmosphere replace reality. Working intuitively, I allowed the painting to develop through successive layers, embracing the physicality of paint as a means of reflecting the changing character of the garden.
Mixed media on canvas. 40 w x 56 h cm (Framed in simple antique gold frame 50 w x 66 h cm)
As Helena Attlee writes, “the lemon is a fruit shaped by care” — something cultivated rather than found, carrying with it a sense of patience, attention and distance. In painting, it holds that same tension. It’s delicious fragrance and taste - sharpness and sweetness set against one another. Here it remains whole. Gilded leaves catch and return the dappled light, contained within a small Georgian round frame — something held and treasured.
Oil and mixed media on board in antique Georgian tondo gilded frame with original glass. Width and height 36cm x 4cm
By midsummer, my garden becomes a layered, abundant, knotted tapestry of shape and colour. A single dahlia in full bloom provided the catalyst for this painting, its saturated crimson petals rising above a richly woven community of grasses, perennials and the first architectural seed heads formed by the season's heat. Rather than isolating individual flowers, I was interested in the rhythm of the whole, where every stem, leaf and bloom exists in quiet dialogue with its neighbour. Painted instinctively, the composition embraces the vitality of a naturalistic garden, allowing gesture, line and colour to mirror its layered complexity, where beauty is found not in individual flowers, but in the conversations between them.
Oil & graphite on textured paper. 30 w x 42 h cm (Framed in antique frame 42.5 w x 53 h cm)
Painted en plein air alongside its companion piece, Iris in Luce, this work emerged as the evening light began to fade, allowing shadow to become as significant as illumination in the soft breeze of the cooling garden. As the composition flowed naturally from light into darkness, I became increasingly aware of the dramatic chiaroscuro created by the iris leaves and flowers. Their upright blades and free-form sculptural structures provided an expressive framework for the painting, where instinctive mark-making and the immediacy of working on paper allowed each gesture to remain visible. Created as the left-hand panel of the diptych, Iris in Tenebris explores the quiet tension between structure and spontaneity, where shadow is not simply the absence of light, but an active and expressive presence.
Oil & Pastel on fabriano paper. 50 w x 70 h cm (Framed in modern white frame size TBC)
Painted en plein air alongside Iris In Tenebris, Iris In Luce captures the same stand of irises as they caught the final brilliance of the evening light. Their petals became almost bleached by the low sun, luminous and translucent against the dense, shadowed foliage beneath, where the graphic blades of the iris leaves created a striking architectural rhythm. Working across both paintings simultaneously, I responded instinctively to these shifting relationships of light, colour and form, allowing the immediacy of oil and pastel on paper to preserve each fleeting observation. Created as the right-hand panel of the diptych, Iris In Luce celebrates the transformative effect of light, revealing how illumination can momentarily redefine both colour and perception.
Oil & Pastel on fabriano paper. 50 w x 70 h cm (Framed in modern white frame. Size TBC)
The irises growing in our garden fascinated me because of their extraordinary colour. So deeply saturated, they seemed to exist on the very edge of the natural world, their petals appearing almost black. It was this ambiguity that first drew me to paint them. As I worked, I became increasingly aware that their sculptural forms could be read in different ways; flowers gave way to what feels like birds, doves and other imagined creatures, as the imagination began to complete what the eye could no longer fully perceive. The painting draws upon the long tradition of the nocturne, not through the depiction of night itself, but through its quiet evocation of mystery, where diminishing light softens certainty and observation gives way to memory and imagination.
Mixed media on canvas. 76 w x 61 h cm (Framed in simple antique gold frame 80 w x 65 h cm)
The dahlia no longer gathers or lifts, but breaks free entirely, dissolving into a surge of colour, gesture, and force. Form is abandoned in favour of sensation: petals smear, collide, and disappear into the act of painting itself. What remains is not a still life but an experience — a moment of rapture where abundance overwhelms structure, and joy asserts itself without restraint.
Oil, walnut ink and metallic acrylic with gesso on canvas in blackened antique frame 76.5 w x 61 h cm Unframed 94 w x 82 h cm Framed
Foxglove forms open and unfold across the surface, their structure loosened as light moves through leaves and petals. Ruptura speaks of parting rather than breaking — an opening that allows warmth and gold to surface, holding growth in motion like a woven field of light, foliage illuminated with gold.
Oil, walnut ink, metallic gold and mixed media with gesso on board in Antique darkened gilded frame 107 w x 94.5 h cm Framed 84 w x 72 h cm Unframed
Still-life depicting late-summer dahlia, echinacea and flowers from my garden gathered at the height of abundance, where colour, weight and structure are allowed to exist without interruption. Light settles across the petals as presence rather than drama, concentrating attention on the intensity of bloom at its fullest celebratory moment.
Oil, walnut ink and mixed media with gesso on board in Antique gilded frame with satyrs masks 140 w x 117 h cm Framed 113 w x 90 h cm Unframed
A quince held between states — fruit, object, almost mineral. The painting explores ambiguity of matter, where surface, weight and light blur distinctions between the organic and the elemental.
Oil, walnut ink and mixed media with gesso in antique frame 69 w x 58.5 h cm Framed 51 w x 41 h cm Unframed
Pomegranates gathered on a table as vessels of memory and continuity. The fruits are held in balance between surface and depth, grounded yet resonant, carrying the quiet weight of time, ritual and persistence.
Oil, mixed media with gesso on board in antique frame 57 w x 62.5 h cm Framed 47 w x 42.5 h cm Unframed
Within my garden at a moment when light moves fully through it, illuminating petals, stems and seed heads alike, so that structure and softness are equally revealed. The light seems to open the space outward, creating a feeling of continuity — as if the garden extends beyond itself, unfolding endlessly. What emerges is a sense of ultimate joy: not fleeting or ecstatic, but vast and sustaining, where growth, light and presence align and feel boundless.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame 143 w x 94 h cm Unframed 185 w x 137 h cm Framed
Foxgloves and lilies gathered into a shared field of light, their forms hovering between emergence and retreat. The painting holds a quiet tension between fragility and strength, where vertical stems and open blooms seem briefly sustained before they pass.
Oil, walnut ink, metallic gold and mixed media with gesso on board in Antique darkened gilded frame 107 w x 94.5 h cm Framed 84 w x 72 h cm Unframed
Stillness as a form of devotion. Splendor Solis centres on a sudden burst of light and energy, where a quince, crossed vine branches and a sunburst crucifix are drawn into alignment. Autumn light enters and radiates outward, activating the surface rather than resting upon it, so that fruit and branch seem charged with presence. The moment is brief but intense — abundance, growth and symbol brought together in a flare of illumination.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame 46 w x 61 h cm Unframed 70 w x 85 h cm Framed
Vines and dark grapes rest in shadow as light slips across their surfaces. Gold emerges softly, not to dominate but to reveal, allowing the abundance of the vine to surface slowly, with reverence and restraint.
Oil, walnut ink and metallic paint with gesso on board in antique frame 69 w x 59 h cm Framed 50.5 w x 40 h cm Unframed
I am thinking about the moment of suspension — not just physical, but spiritual and temporal. The apple hangs between growth and fall, held in a quiet pause that feels both intimate and charged. This work reflects my ongoing fascination with stillness as a form of contemplation: the way a single fruit, briefly arrested in time, can become an offering.
Oil and gesso on canvas in antique frame 26 w x 36 h cm Unframed 32.5 w x 43.5 h cm Framed
An exploration of floral abundance, shifting from the dense ecstasy of bloom toward elevation and illumination. A tangle of late-summer flowers rises across the surface, their forms loosening and lifting as colour moves from shadow into radiance. Gesture replaces outline, and the flowers seem suspended in a moment of ascent — not arranged, but carried — recalling the gilded logic of devotional painting, where light signals transformation.
Oil, walnut ink and metallic acrylic with gesso on canvas in antique frame 76.5 w x 61 h cm Unframed 98 w x 80 h cm Frame
Foxgloves appear briefly as apparitions, catching light before dissolving back into space. The work reflects my fascination with how luminosity is carried through living things, how colour can create emotion without being illustrative: a moment where growth, fragility and illumination coincide.
Pastel and acrylic on paper 43 w x 57.5 h cm Unframed 52 w x 72 h cm Framed
Apples gathered together, their forms overlapping and merging. Stillness as a form of devotion. The apples are brought together not for abundance or display, but to be held in a single moment of attention. The drawing holds collective presence — not individual objects, but a shared weight shaped by closeness and restraint.
Art Graf water-soluble pastel, walnut ink and graphite on paper 43 w x 30 h cm Unframed 52 w x 42 h cm Framed
Cydonia oblonga — rendered as a quiet unfolding of form, weight, and light. The fruit sit low and grounded, their yellow warmth emerging through veils of white, umber, and grey, as if slowly revealed rather than placed. Gesture moves laterally across the surface, echoing the line of the table. The work speaks to containment and restraint — fruit gathered, held, and observed — where light is not dramatic but earned, settling gently into the surface and allowing the ordinary to carry a quiet gravity.
Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 h x 70 w cm Unframed 63 h x 93.5 w cm Framed
Not an ending, but a gathering of what lingers. This work attends to the residue of warmth, colour, and light after the flowers peak has passed, holding them with care rather than nostalgia. It is a painting about continuity — how abundance leaves traces that still sustain. A single quince anchors the composition.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on paper 50 h x 70 w cm Unframed 63 h x 93.5 w cm Frame
The remaining forms of summer thin into memory. Petals loosen, colour fades, and what remains is held gently — a record of passing rather than loss. A point where abundance begins to ebb and attention sharpens. It is a painting of transition and endurance, holding the flower not at its height nor its conclusion, but in the subtle interval where vitality lingers and the season turns inward.
Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 h x 70 w cm Unframed 63 h x 93.5 w cm Framed
Autumn fruits ripeness - weight, density, and memory. Almost pressed into the ground of the painting, as if time itself has gently compacted the fruits, darkening their colour and deepening their presence. I am interested here in abundance not as display, but as gravity: the quiet richness that comes with maturity, shadow, and depth. It speaks to autumn as a season of gathering and inwardness
Oil and gesso on canvas in antique frame 56 w x 40 h cm Unframed 69 w x 56 h cm Framed
The pomegranate becomes a bearer of memory — marked by time, touch, and the quiet accumulation of looking. This work sits within my ongoing interest in how objects absorb meaning through proximity, repetition and contemplation. Testimonium speaks to evidence rather than declaration — a still life not offered for consumption, but held as proof of presence, of having been seen. A silent witness to what has passed and what endures.
Oil and gesso on canvas in antique frame 61 w x 46 h cm Unframed 67.5 w x 52.5 h cm Framed
Apples and leaves scattered as if newly gathered, caught by autumn light that settles and lingers. Light is held as something remembered rather than observed, quietly transforming fruit and leaf into icons of presence.
Oil and metallic paint with gesso on board in antique frame 66 w x 55.5 h cm Framed 51 w x 40.5 h cm Unframed
Golden seeps into the painting gradually, catching and resting on the fruit as if arriving rather than being applied. Apples are held aloft, suspended at the moment of arrival. Light enters the space and settles across their skins, marking a pause where fruit is neither fallen nor taken — abundance recognised and briefly held.
Oil, walnut ink, metallic gold with gesso on board in antique gilded frame 91 w x 75 h cm Framed 68.5 w x 52.5 h cm Unframed
An unexpected moment in the garden — different poppy varieties rising together. The weather has tangled them, bending and interlacing stems, yet their arrival feels urgent and celebratory, a signal that summer has begun to assert itself. There is a sense of surprise, of growth arriving unannounced, carrying both fragility and momentum. The shifting of seasons.
Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 w x 70 h cm Unframed 63 w x 93.5 h cm Framed
The rain has passed and the garden begins to right itself. The blooms are no longer weighed down but not yet still, caught in a quiet re-ordering as petals lift, settle and re-find their place. What matters here is balance regained rather than perfection — a sense of lightness returning, of forms breathing again after pressure.
Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 w x 70 h cm Unframed 63 w x 93.5 h cm Framed
Freshly opened poppies are unsettled by a sudden change in weather. Movement fractures the blooms, leaving vulnerability exposed and energy alive to the elements.
Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 w x 70 h cm Unframed 63 w x 93.5 h cm Framed
A study from my garden — foxgloves, cosmos, and lilies — caught in a rush of wind and weather. Painted in that suspended breath before the rain, when everything trembles on the edge of change.
This work celebrates fleeting moments — the beauty that exists only for an instant before it’s gone. Petals, light, and air dissolving together, held briefly in paint and memory.
46cm x 61cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
“At Bourton they always had stiff little vases all down the table. Sally went out, picked hollyhocks, dahlias — all sorts of flowers that had never been seen together — cut their heads off, and made them swim on the top of water in bowls. The effect was extraordinary — coming in from the sunlit garden into the darkened room, the light making the petals luminous, some floating, some sinking, all with the incomparable beauty of their frail, quivering, yet daring life.” — Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
This painting responds to Woolf’s vivid image of flower heads floating in bowls—fragile, luminous, and boldly un-arranged. I was drawn to the tension between order and wildness, tradition and quiet rebellion.
The blooms hover in a densely layered surface—part reflection, part memory. The textured paint suggests both water and distortion, evoking the fragility of the moment and the fluidity of perception. Light and shadow shift across the composition, echoing Woolf’s theme of transience and inner life. The bowl becomes a vessel not for preservation, but for transformation.
Encaustic wax, oil paint, raw pigment with gesso on board in antique frame. 51 cm w x 41 cm h unframed 69 cm w x 58.5 cm h x 6 cm d framed
Casa De Las Salinas is a 16th Century Renaissance period house in the centre of Seville. The central courtyard is designed in a traditional layout which has been used since Roman times, creating a cool and tranquil space. In the 16th Century the owners noble family Jaén, appear among the most active merchants and financiers in Seville.
The red ochre walled courtyard is adorned with Moorish, Medieval and Renaissance objects and architectual elements. A pair of dark Triana green jars to transport precious oils and spices sit upon iron trivets.
The spaces whispers of the past and the jars have a monolithic presence evocative of a strong soul and spirit.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board 120cm h x 60.5 cm w
In the grand tradition of bringing citrus specimens from distant lands, I returned home with a remarkable fruit from the royal palace of Real Alcázares de Seville: a perfect 'Citrus Limon Osbeck' lemon from their historic citrus collection.
Dating back to the sixteenth century, the gardens of the Real Alcázares boasted both sweet and bitter lemon trees, particularly in the Garden of Cidral. The 1669 Chronicles of Cosimo de' Medici, recounting his travels around Spain and Portugal, mention the Tuscan Prince's admiration for these gardens. He marveled at the lemon trees in full bloom in December, calling it a great wonder.
The citrus collections were revered throughout history. The lemons embody the spirit and history of the gardens of Paradise in Seville, and dreams of warmer climes.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame. Framed size 40cm w x 35cm h Unframed size 28cm w x 22cm h
Sagrada Familia is inspired by my recent visit to Seville during "Semana Santa" or Holy Week: the soul, the passion and the energy of the city; the atmosphere manifested from the deeply ingrained spiritual culture of worship; the timeless beauty that is an amalgamation of the most noble and magnificent elements from Roman to Renaissance.
The paired back nature of this work harks towards the resplendent chiaroscuro and luminous qualities of the work of one of Seville's lustrous artists - Baroque painter 'Murillo' who captured the soul and life of the place and the people. Magnolia flowers and papaver poppies cascade from the Heavens.
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame 68 cm w x 110 cm h unframed 114 cm w x 136 cm h x 8.5 cm d framed
Inspired by the work of an anonymous (female?) artist "Virgen de Reposo" is housed in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, in which the abundant branches of an apple tree shelter the resting Virgin and Child as the madonna hands the child a freshly fallen apple. The painting refers to the idea of the garden of eden, but the Madonna presents as a second Eve. The painting is ethereal and sensitive and the delicately painted subject matter refers to the the Christian doctrine of falling from grace and the salvation of the human race. For me the work is more about the connection of humanity and the beauty and gift of nature, of which I seek to represent in my own interpretation with a fallen apple below the apple tree.
Oil and gesso on board 120cm h x 60.5cm w
From the series "Seville Triptych" 'Cochineal Red Wisteria'. 'Jasminum officinale L. (Common Jasmine) and 'Wisteria sinensis Sweet' (Chinese wisteria) intertwine in large abundance over the external deep Cochineal red walls in the Jewish Quarter outside the Alcázar. Your senses are overwhellmed with the scent of the wisteria, striking clusters of butterfly shaped lilac flowers which give off an intoxicating aroma. They cover the gallery of the Garden of Galera in the Real Alcázar - in winter letting light and heat in and in summer sifting the intense light by forming this beautiful natural lattice of abundant leaves. In the background the sound of sparkling waters from a nearby marble fountain with tiered cascades is being visted by a graceful white dove.
Jasmine is often considered the flower of Paradise, or the symbol of divine love. Since the jasmine flowers precisely in May, the month dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the flower is associated with her image. It is also highly valued in Islamic culture, we know from a fragment of an ancient Arabic poem that King al-Mutamid loved the scent of jasmine, and would have filled his gardens with the wonderful plant the during his dynasty in Seville between 1040-1095.
Cochineal red pigment extracted from the tiny bettle which lives on the Prickily Pear plant, was one of the colours the Spanish tresure fleets brought in peak quanity from the Americas during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Only the ports at Seville and Cadiz were permitted to import the pigment. The wonderous deep scarlet colour was used in profusion, in the 16th Century textiles were dyed in the brightest and most saturated red dyers had ever seen, followed by use within the European painters palette as seen within Baroque paintings from the beginning of the 17th Century.
Mixed media on canvas in handmade frame 183 cm h x 85 cm unframed 202 cm h x 100 cm w m 4.5 cm d
Part of the "Seville Triptych" Casa De Los Pinelo is a 16th Century Renaissance period house in the centre of Seville. The central courtyard is designed in a traditional layout which has been used since Roman times, creating a cool and tranquil space which houses a collection of 'Citrus Aurantium L.' or the Bitter (Seville) Orange.
Small oranges are scattered across the unswept floor, with scented fallen blossoms and leaves. The fruit is associated with paradise in many cultures, in Greek and Roman myth Hercules stole the 'golden' fruit from the Garden of the Hesperides. The distinctive presence of the orange trees in Southern Europe is linked with the arrival of the Arabs who introduced them for ornamental value, and specifically for the heady scent of their flower, the orange blossom. Muslim kings of al-Andalus composed their courtyards with orange trees in all four corners, so when passing by on the first floor open terraces they could reach to harvest the fruits and inhale the sweet scent of the blossoms.
This series of paintings are a lot about light, and sun and shadows - creating a kind of magic in a contemplative space making you observe with a different state of mind. Jasmine and the spectacular and strange large leaves of 'Monstera deliciosa Liebm.' or Monstera deliciosa climb the crumbling white washed walls. The foliage and walls inadvertently make your eyes raise upwards towards the skies. Visiting inward facing palaces and gardens in Seville, give the feeling of being in a sacred space, where the sky is framed by these wild botanical walls. The light is beautifully coming inside, it's changing all the time as the sun acts as a sundial, the brightness shards of light illuminating alongside softened dappled cooling surfaces.
Mixed media on canvas in handmade frame 183 cm h x 85 cm unframed 202 cm h x 100 cm w m 4.5 cm d
“The earth after the shower was fresh; a river of life flowed.” - 'Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway'
This painting is inspired by the discovery of an ancient, overgrown pool in a field near my home—its surface scattered with lily pads and iris fronds. Drawing on Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, I explore the idea of “water and the sky,” a space where consciousness drifts toward oblivion. As Woolf writes, “In the depths, light trembled still.” It is a place where hallucination dissolves the boundary between self and world.
The paintings are both ethereal and soft, yet marked by distressed, scratched textures—suggesting mental friction, fragmentation, and a surrender to either the depth of the waters or the reflections on their surface. Reeds and lily pads transform into ghostly, dripping calligraphic lines—memories trying to rise. We exist between layers.
Clarissa’s green dress in the novel is likened to “mermaids singing, each to each.” My work feels submerged in a similar way—our identities fluid and shifting. There is a sense of delicacy here, of transient, elusive beauty.
Oil, raw pigment, oil bar and gesso on board in 1920s Art Deco antique frame 104 cm w x 83 cm h unframed 138 cm w x 119 cm h x 8 cm d
A rare blue Meconopsis — the Himalayan poppy — discovered at Newby Hall Gardens. Its impossible, celestial blue felt like something glimpsed rather than found, fleeting yet eternal. I painted to celebrate its rarity — a moment of pure wonder held delicately in pigment and breath.
This work captures the essence of transience: the bloom that appears only once in a lifetime, suspended between fragility and brilliance.
66cm x 90cm unframed Oil and mixed media on paper
Drawn to the elusive Meconopsis — the rare blue poppy of the Himalayas — this work traces my memory of its shimmering presence. Found at Newby Hall Gardens, its extraordinary hue seemed almost imagined: a bloom that exists between worlds, dissolving into air and shadow.
Through fluid washes and gestural marks, I sought to capture that sense of searching — for something so fragile it might vanish as you behold it. A meditation on rarity, beauty, and the pursuit of the unattainable.
66cm x 90cm unframed Oil and mixed media on paper
“Behind the veil of the flesh was the pure soul, the narrow chamber, the candle burning.” — Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
This painting explores the idea of the hidden self—the quiet, flickering presence of the soul beneath the surface. A space for quiet contemplation.
The “candle” is a metaphor: a subtle, enduring light within our lives. The rough, scraped surface evokes memory, time, and the tension between inner stillness and outer decay. Like an attic rarely entered, this work holds something intimate, fragile, and quietly defiant.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame. 51 cm w x 41 cm h unframed 69 cm w x 58.5 cm h x 6 cm d framed
“The incomparable beauty of their frail, quivering, yet daring life... The leaden circles dissolved in the air.” — Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
'Floating Hours' continues the reflection begun in 'Beauty Had a Meaning' — a meditation on memory, impermanence, and the fleeting beauty of time suspended. The painting depicts pewter bowls of water filled with drifting, fragmented forms—petals, reflections, shadows—all caught in a moment of soft transience.
The circular vessels suggest both stillness and motion, like Woolf’s “leaden circles” of the chimes of time echoing from Big Ben ringing out over London. Some forms appear to rise toward the surface; others sink into the depths. These bowls become vessels of remembrance, where beauty and loss coexist.
There’s a quiet tension in the composition: between light and dark, surface and depth, presence and fading. The flowers are like lingering thoughts. This work, like the novel, is a space where time floats rather than passes, and where meaning is felt in its most delicate, dissolving form.
Encaustic wax, oil paint, raw pigment with gesso on board in antique frame. 76 cm w x 66 cm h unframed 96 cm w x 85.5 cm h x 7 cm d
“She had a sense of letting go; and as she did so, up rose into the air the faces of the others… they floated about her like mermaids, and sang…” — Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Nymphaea draws on the atmosphere of the ancient, hidden pool—overgrown with lily pads and iris fronds—where sky and water meet and dissolve. The painting is both landscape and inner state, a drifting meditation on memory, identity, and the momentary clarity that emerges from stillness.
Inspired by Woolf’s vision of mermaids, moonlight, and dissolving selves, this piece imagines the water as a veil between consciousness and oblivion. Layers of blue, earth, and shadow evoke both the depths of the pond and the vastness of the sky reflected in it. The lilies are not perfectly rendered but more felt-impressions of ethereal shapes surfacing through the delicate surface.
The work holds a tension between fluid lightness and grounded weight: soft, transparent washes contrast with dark, distressed textures that suggest the friction of thought, the fragility of memory. The surface is alive with movement, yet subdued, as if the image is slowly emerging—or vanishing.
Nymphaea is a painting of thresholds: between presence and absence, self and world, light and shadow. Like the fleeting beauty Woolf describes, it floats—delicate, uncertain, but undeniably there.
Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper 131 cm h x 71 cm w unframed 140 cm h x 80 cm w Framed in simple modern white frame floating on mount board behind glass
“In the depths, light trembled still.” — Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
In Syrinx, the surface of the water becomes a screen onto which memory, myth, and sensation are projected. Dense with reeds and iris fronds, the painting captures the tangle of the subconscious—a place where forms are in flux and boundaries dissolve. The tall, slender marks rise and waver like breath or sound, evoking the nymph Syrinx, who was transformed into reeds to escape pursuit, her voice carried on the wind as music.
Here, the reeds are not only natural forms but also vessels of transformation. They cut through layers of blue, grey, and rust, like thoughts breaking through water’s surface. The iris fronds—sharp, gestural, and flowing—lend the piece a sense of movement and fragility, suggesting both resistance and surrender.
This is a painting of verticals and echoes, of reflections and ruptures. The water becomes both mirror and depth. The atmosphere is soft, but the textures are fractured, hinting at the mind’s quiet turbulence.
Syrinx is a meditation on identity held loosely, beautifully, in a space of in-betweenness—where light trembles, and memory becomes form.
Mixed media on Arches Oil Paper 131 cm h x 71 cm w unframed 140 cm h x 80 cm w Framed in simple modern white frame floating on mount board behind glass
Astaea captures the abundant energy of my garden as it transitions into winter. The thick impasto layers of oil paint, gesso, and encaustic wax create a rich, textured surface, evoking the tapestry-like quality of the perennial border—where seed heads and foliage form in preparation for the frost, offering sustenance for the birds. The asters, fennel, and heleniums emerge from this layered surface, with some flowers gilded to catch the light, bringing an ethereal glow to the piece.
The dense, tactile surface reflects the garden’s flourishing energy, woven and celebrating both growth and the quiet beauty of decay. Each layer adds to the depth and complexity, mirroring the cycles of nature and the evolving patterns within the garden. Through Astaea, I seek to convey the sense of an ever-changing, living canvas, where the garden’s purpose continues even as it prepares for the stillness of winter. The painting becomes a testament to the garden’s ability to inspire and sustain, even in the midst of transformation.
Oil, gesso, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique frame w 57 x h 84.5 cm (Framed in antique frame w 82 x h 107 cm)
Together in Light & Earth is a meditative composition, evoking balance and harmony. The pewter plate, holding a ripe quince, sings of the earth’s bounty and the passage of time. The quince, with its golden tones and imperfect form, is ripe and this moment of perfection in nature fleeting.
The mussel shell, contains raw pigment for painting, speaks to the transformation of nature into art, bridging the raw and the crafted. Historically Mussel shells and other shells have been used by artists for centuries, dating back to ancient times. In the Renaissance, for example, artists would use shells to hold pigments and as mixing dishes for their paints. In the background, the heart-shaped 18th-century Rushlight candle holder adds warmth, symbolising light, inspiration, representing enlightenment, while its soft glow contrasts with the grounding presence of the other objects.
The careful placement of each element creates a perfect equilibrium, offering a quiet moment of stillness and contemplation.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame w 51 x h 41 cm (framed w 59 x h 69 cm)
Ceres is a gestural, impressionistic work on paper, created en plein air in my garden, capturing the fleeting moment of autumnal light as it dances across the perennial border I planted a year ago. In this piece, I’ve sought to convey the raw energy and fluidity of nature evoking the vibrant, evolving forms of the plants. The fennel fronds, Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty', and Echinops thistle emerge in bold, sweeping gestures, their forms suggested rather than defined. The interplay between soft washes and vigorous mark-making reflects the contrast between the quiet decay of autumn and the persistent energy of growth.
Through Ceres, I aim to capture not just the physicality of the plants, but their essence—their moment in time, caught in the ebb and flow of the seasons. The composition speaks to the transient nature of life, the energy of nature, and the meditative process of observing it in its purest, most unfiltered form.
Graphite and conte pastel drawing on Arches watercolour paper w 114 x h 76.5 cm (framed size w 134 x h 96.5 cm approx.)
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
Terra's Sacred Fruit is a contemplative still life that intertwines the ancient symbolism of the pomegranate with the timeless form of a Roman earthenware bowl. The composition features the pomegranate cradled within a classic, hand-crafted bowl, its rich, red hue a striking contrast against the earthy tones of the surrounding elements. The fruit is symbolic of abundance, and the cyclical nature of life—the pomegranate long revered as a symbol of renewal and nourishment.
The title, Terra's Sacred Fruit, references the deep connection between the earth and its offerings, invoking the ancient reverence for this fruit, often considered sacred across various cultures. The subtle, muted colour palette, coupled with the tactile texture of the bowl, creates a harmonious balance, reflecting a moment of quiet reflection on the beauty of nature and its enduring presence.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame w 38 x h 29 cm (framed w 51.5 x h 43 cm)
Ode to Persephone is a simple yet evocative depiction of three pomegranates, a fruit long associated with the myth of Persephone. In the painting, the deep reds of the pomegranates contrast with a soft, muted background, reflecting the fruit's symbolism of both life and death, and the transition between seasons.
The pomegranate has long been seen as a symbol of fertility and the cycles of nature, linked to Persephone’s journey between the underworld and the world above. By focusing on these three fruits, I aim to capture that sense of change and transformation. The loose, textured brushstrokes bring a sense of movement, while the gentle use of space allows the pomegranates to stand as the focal point of the piece.
In this work, I wanted to explore themes of growth, decay, and the quiet beauty found in nature’s cycles.
Mixed media on paper, framed in antique frame w 47.5 x h 37cm (framed w 71 x h 61 cm)
In Delft Egg, I have sought to evoke both the elegance of the 18th-century Delft plate and the symbolism carried by the egg itself. The soft, flowing brushstrokes in shades of blue and grey reflect the delicate beauty of a cherished object, while the egg—so simple, yet profound—embodies themes of new beginnings, fertility, and the fragile nature of life.
The egg is often seen as a symbol of potential and creation, and in this piece, it serves as a quiet meditation on the cycles of life and growth. Just as the eggs are held gently on a reflective surface, so too do we hold moments of transition with care, recognising their transitory beauty.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. w 23 x h 19 cm (framed w 36 x h 32 cm)
A small "Placa de Olavide" (Olavide Tile) or 'place name' tile within the antique collection of Casa De Las Salinas, a 16th Century palace in Seville.
The tile harks back from the reign of Charles III. In the mid-18th Century Spanish cities were notriously disorganised, a Royal Decree in 1768 ordered that streets were to be named and houses numbered. In 1771 under Don Pablo de Olavide y Jauregui, "Olavide Tiles" were implemented and Olavide commissioned the first detailed city plan. Walking around Seville you will spot these wonderfully graphic hand painted tiles on street corners and buildings adding to the essence of Seville.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in wooden frame Framed size 36.5 cm w x 40.5 cm h Unframed size 19cm w x 22cm h
In the great tradition of bringing citrus specimens from far flung climes I returned home with a windfall fruit from the royal palace of Real Alcázares De Seville. A perfect 'Citrus Limon Osbeck' Lemon from the great citrus collection.
In the sixteenth century there were sweet and bitter lemon trees in the gardens of the Real Alcázares, planted in the Garden of Cidral. In the 1669 Chronicles of Cosimo de Medicis around Spain and Portugal,the Tuscan prince narrates that he stopped to admire the vegetation: the great wonder of these gardens was however for us to find lemon trees covered with flowers in December... The citrus collections were so revered - it is known that The architect Vermondo Resta, who conducted much of the reform of the gardens in the early seventeenth century, was given everyday oranges and lemons and seasonal flowers from the gardens of Alcázar. These were some of the grants enjoyed by the architect as the greatest master of Seville’s palace. True treasure from the gardens of Paradise in Seville!
Oil, acrylic and gesso on board in antique frame 41 cm w x 32.5 cm h unframed 54 cm w x 46 cm h framed
A diminutive holy water font in a corner of the exuberant and imposing Giralda Cathedral in Seville. I often feel that the smallest details, such as this font have as much meaning and purpose as the beautiful grandiose opulence of the Baroque within the Cathedral. A moment of contemplation in simplicity and purity.
Oil, Indian Ink and gesso on board in antique frame 52 cm h x 35 cm w unframed 63 cm h x 48 cm w framed
Vibrant cerise peony flowers unfurl against shadows, the silouttes of date palm trees cast blue grey forms across white washed walls.
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
The ground beneath my feet in much of Seville was strewn with fallen fruits, orange blossoms and leaves. Their image reminded me of the Roman mosaics or "Asaroton" deriving from a type known as 'the unswept floor' introduced by Sosus of Pergamum (c.150-100BC). The mosaics resemble a floor that has been covered in food after a banquet or a celebration; you can see fruit, figs, lobster claws, sea urchins and even a tiny mouse in the 'Asarotos oikos' mosaic which is housed in the Vatican. The objects are illuminated by multi-directional pools of light from imaginary candles giving the illusion of a real life scene which must have amused the Romans very much!
My floor has traces of red spilt across its surface. During the Semana Santa week processions of 'Brotherhoods' move slowly down the orange tree lined streets, the air was thick with the heady scent of orange blossom (azahres) mixed with clouds frankincense incense and candle wax from the huge 'Cirios' altar candles which are carried dispersing in their wake.
Late at night and early in the morning, before the City's streets are washed clean, the grey granite floors are coated in red wax from the processions and the oranges and their leaves scattered. An exhilarating experience leaving a lasting impression.
Oil, Indian ink and gesso on board in antique frame 73 cm w x 53 cm h unframed 89 cm w x 71 cm h framed
Deeply coloured peony flowers emerge from the shadows surrounded by illuminating Heavenly golden aureole.
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, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame 76 cm w x 64 cm h unframed 107 cm h x 95 cm h framed
Fleetingly delicate papery blooms of papaver poppies swirl in contrast between light and dark in the heat of the Sevillian courtyard. Shadows of date palms and other botanics collected over centuries from far flung climes intertwine in a cacophony of beautiful movement and energy.
These blooms, even at the peak of their pomp and power cannot help but signal their decline. Their purpose is to attract, their destiny to decay. So here is work which is both articulate and instinctive, illuminating even when it is darkling…
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
The pale faces of spring, the feeling of rebirth. Magnolia and the papery petals of papaver poppies unfurl to reveal their delicate luminousity. A celebration of the changing seasons.
Magnolia grandiflora was introduced in Europe in 1688, they proliferate in Seville. The oldest tree is a specimen within the Garden of the Dance in the Real Alcázar.
Soluble Aquarelle pencil and Artgraf pastel on Fabriano paper 69 cm h x 49 cm w unframed 85 cm h x 65 cm w framed
Citrus Aurantium otherwise known as the Bittler orange/Seville orange sits next to a Lambis Lambis conch shell on top of a cabinet for curiosites.
The orange tree has more presence than any other tree in Seville, associated with paradise in many different cultures. The Greeks and Romans spoke of the golden apples or 'auratium' that Hercules stole from the garden of Hesperides. The Arabs introduced them for ornamental value and the heady scent of the orange blossom flowers. I am transfixed by the idea and reality of the composition of Muslim King's courtyards which were planted in four corners by sunken flower beds containing the trees, so that when passing on high platforms on the first floor they could smell the wonderful scent and pick the fruits.
The fruit is particularly associated with Winter, when pefectly ripe.
Francisco Barrera depicts the orange in his baroque painting 'El Invierno', now housed in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 21 w x 21 h cm unframed (35 w x 35 h cm framed)
Part of 'The Seville Triptych'. Outside the battlements of the Real Alcázar de Sevilla, the Moorish Royal Palace with fountain-filled gardens and one of the most exceptional botanical and citrus collections dating back to the 16th Century, is the passage Calle Judería next to Plaza de los Venerables (Hospital of the Venerable Priests). The street is notable for its intense golden ochre walls, and in early April wisteria tumbles with joyous abandonment over the top lintel giving furtive glimpses of an secret internal courtyard housing palms, cyprus and magnolia trees.
Mixed media on canvas in handmade frame 183 cm h x 85 cm unframed 202 cm h x 100 cm w m 4.5 cm d
A pair of Medieval Siegberg earthernware pottery jug from my collection with pomegranate. Created from hard, nonporous ceramic which is both strong and impervious to liquids, the hand thrown shape was ideally suited for domestic purposes. A banal object with a vital importance to everyday life.
This work was created in the winter to spring months, many of the pieces painted in this period are inspired by my move to an old house in the countryside and a new feeling of calm and contemplation. The works have historic sentiment as the land and place surrounding me holds too. Here at Cayton, I'm surrounded by an ancient Medieval site, nearby there are the remnants of fish pools which used to serve the Cistercian Fountains Abbey. The lakes used to house one of the largest potteries where earthernware was made and fired on wooden jettys extending the waters edge. The sense of this place transmutes into the paintings, my medieval ceramic collection holds even more significance.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 41 cm w x 51 cm h unframed 57 cm w x 68 cm h framed
A dimunitive still- life of a 17th Century Delft saucer/bowl houses three tiny eggs. The white glazed faience bowl has the same fragility of the eggs, it's delicate ceramic surface has aged into a translucent appearance. The eggs and the bowl reflect the soft Winter's light from my studio window.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 23 w x 18.5 h cm unframed (35.5 w x 31.5 h cm framed)
A tiny perfect fig in dappled Winter light viewed through a foraged collection of thorny branches and bright red berries.
Abundant in the gardens of the Alcazar on my visit to Seville earlier this year - One of the oldest fruit trees, the fig was cultivated in the Middle East: an Egyptian painting over 4500 features the fruits. During the Andalusian era, they grew abundantly in the scholar Ibn al-'Awwam's experimentation garden around 1200 AD.
The symbolism of the fig runs deep through history: Adam and Eve covered themselves in fig leaves after eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge in Genesis. Romulus and Remus's basket miraculously stopped under a wild fig when they were abandoned on the Tiber.
Oil and gesso on board in antique and modern frame 12.5 w x 15 h cm unframed (24 w x 26.5 h cm framed)
17th Century pewter plate with pomegranate. The semi-reflective surface of the pewter plate holds luminosity. The objects are caught still and expectant in soft thin Winter light, delicately highlighting the dry spiky fronds of the thistles and holding the forms of the pomegranates.
Mixed media and oil on paper in glazed modern slim gold frame 70 w x 50 h cm unframed (71 w x 51 h cm framed) (Pomegranate in bowl with thistles)
Abundant still-life depicting a luscious pomegranate poised in a pool of luminous Winter's light surrounded by thorny branches with ripe red rose hips.
A celebration of the gifts of Autumn to Winter. Of ripe offerings to the birds. The pale pink wild rose which proliferated the hedgerows around my home now becomes great swathes and spiny arches of bright cadmium fruits.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 21 w x 21 h cm unframed (35 w x 35 h cm framed)
Contemplative still life with 18th Century Granada bowl, pomegranates, dried seed heads, thistles and branches.
The name of the pomegranate species, granatum derives from the Latin meaning 'abundant grains'. It is an ancient species, grenades have been found in Egyptian tombs, linked with the idea of ressurection. During the middle ages because of this myth, it became the symbol of ressurection in the hand of the Child Jesus. It expresses the concept of unity within diversity, uniting people and cultures.
In Islam the pomegranate is a sacred tree. In the Koran it is one of the conserved species in the the promised blessed shady gardens of Paradise. Indeed, the City of Grandada, where the Andalusians lived until 1492 bears the name of the fruit.
Granada is famed for it's ceramic production, The production of such beautiful glazed terracotta ‘Lebrillo’ bowls known as Fajalauza, date back to early 16th Century Granada, and were created particularly in the Albayzín, a district of Granada. These traditional and humble banal forms have become an emblem of the city. Created for domestic use, they are a simple non-noble objects connected to everyday life and were a recognised part of all Granada households, each home owning one or more depending on its’ size.
Mixed media and oil on paper in glazed modern slim gold frame 70 w x 50 h cm unframed (71 w x 51 h cm framed)
Tiny still life of an egg on my artists palette
Oil on board unframed. 11 h x 14 w cm
Small still life of an egg on my artists palette.
Oil on board unframed. 11 h x 14 w cm
Small still life of an egg on my artists palette.
Oil on board. 11 h x 14 w cm
Small still life in vibrant Summer light of three eggs on my artists palette.
Oil on board unframed. 19.5 h x 20.5 w cm
A pewter charger is set on a long ancient oak table in Gwydir Castle. Shafts of pale blue and golden light dance across it's surface. It speaks of ancient times, times past and lives shared. I visited Gwydir just after my previous exhibition in Autumn last year. The plate reminds me of my pewter plates in my studio. The object is caught still and expectant in the thin winter light. Impressive in its austere simplicity.
Gwydir Castle is situated in the Conwy Valley, Wales near Llanrwst. It is a fortified manor house dating back to c.1500, a wonderfully atmospheric place with an incredible history.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 58.8 cm w x 45 cm h unframed 76 cm w x 64 cm h framed
A small carved wooden Welsh spoon rack with it's collection of wooden Cawl spoons is glimpsed in a pool of winters light from the small rustic window.
The Welsh 'Lovespoon' dates back to the ledgend of St Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of lovers who founded a convent at Llanddwyn off the west coast of Anglesey. A place of pigrimage since her death in 465 AD. St Dwynwen's Day is celebrated on the 25th January by young suitors traditionally giving their beloved a token of their affections, a lovespoon.
This work was created in the winter to spring months, it is part of a series of pieces which hold the same quality and was inspired by my move to the countryside and the new found feeling of calm and contemplation. I love my new old home - there is a wonderful constant feeling of ancient past times and lives, the sense of this place filters into the paintings.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 41 cm w x 60 cm h unframed 50 cm w x 70 cm h framed
Dried thistles, 'Verre de Fougére' Medieval glass jug and 17th Century pewter plate with pomegranate. The semi-reflective surface of the pewter plate holds luminosity. The objects are caught still and expectant in thin Winter light.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 61 cm w x 45.5 cm h unframed 74.5 cm w x 58.5 cm h framed
The last vestiges of Summer evident in the sculptural organic seed heads of Sunflowers from my winter garden held in Medieval Seidberg jugs 'capturing light'.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame 46 cm w x 65 cm h unframed 60 cm w x 78 cm framed
Study for "Sagrada Familia" capturing the energy of growth.
Oil, Indian ink and mixed media on antique Japanese parchment paper 79 x 79 cm
Study for "Sagrada Familia" capturing the chiarascuro quaity of blooms in the shadows.
Oil, Indian ink and mixed media on antique Japanese parchment paper 79 x 79 cm
The pale faces of spring, the feeling of rebirth. Magnolia and papaver poppies unfurl to reveal their delicate luminous and architectural petals.
Selene is the Greek Goddess of the Moon. In Greek mythology she can be found depicted in scenes with her beloved - Endymion, the shepherd - a beautiful man who is granted eternal youth and eternal sleep with sleep-inducing poppies. The myth of Selene and Endymion is one of fulfillment through unending sleep and yet Selene gives allusions to the changeless cycle of nature.
Soluble Aquarelle pencil and Artgraf pastel on Fabriano paper 69 cm h x 49 cm w unframed 85 cm h x 65 cm w framed
Lucid light floods through two delicately hand-blown glass jugs, one 17th Century and one late Medieval, both 'verre de fougére' known as forest glass created from wood ash and sand as raw materials in central Europe in glasshouses in forested areas. They contrast strongly with pre-Roman forms of which they are reminiscent of. Their primitive shapes are timeless, the colour blue-green a Roman tradition and perfection. They are imbued with spirit of the maker.
69 w x50 h cm Framed (60 w x 40 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso in antique frame.
I came across a sunflower field in a most unexpected place, just after lockdown on an unexpected day of escape from what had become the norm. The sunflower field epitomised life at every stage. Indeed, the species name annus referes to the plant's annual life cycle. 'Gaudium Vitae' translates from latin as 'the joy of life'. I wanted the paintings to be explosions of light, shape and colour. Like fireworks - celebrating - or deep space star constellations - places of creation.
80.5 w x 106 h cm (Framed 123 w x 146.5 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in dramatic 18th Century Italian gilded antique frame with perfect patination
Still life inspired by the use of fresco in the Roman Villa. Creating spaces and places within living spaces, the Romans adorned their walls with depictions of everyday food and wine; precious vessels and objects from daily-life; self-portraits alongside images of the Gods and Godesses they worshiped. The heavy impasto surface of the painting here has a chalky ceramic-like quality. A small glass blue-green silica wine jug poised alongside a perfect leafy lemon. The lemon was a prized fruit in ancient Rome, it symbolised the status of the home. The Romans worshiped Bacchus the God of wine and all of his unrestrained revelry, ecstasy and creativity.
46 w x 34 h cm (Framed 65 w x 53 h cm) Oil , mixed media and gesso in antique frame
Many Roman garden-scene frescos depict a small fountain amongst the abundant foliage of their dream gardens. I'm enchanted by the Roman's ability to bring the sound of water to their homes, irrigated by the mighty Aqua Augustus aqueduct: the smallest fountains with the cooling harmony of running water, concealing conversations and blocking the humdrum everyday of the outside world.
64.5 w x 78 h cm (Framed 84 w x 97 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame with classical motif decoration.
Glass vase with pomegranate fruit inspired by the glass jar with fruit fresco at Oplontis within the Villa of Poppaea, owned by the Emperor Nero. Poppaea was surrounded by extensive dignified and elegant gardens with majestic arcades. The fresco celebrates the abundance of fruits (probably grown within the gardens) and highlights the precious and sumptuous nature of the glass. Within the frescos of the Villa, realistic perspective is abandoned in favour of flatness of elongated forms which formed a kind of shrine around an often mythological central room scene.
39.5 w x 55 h cm (Framed 56 w x 71.5 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in 19th Century Spanish gilt frame.
I am inspired by the idea of the immersive Roman garden, many Roman households housed paintings that developed on the notion of the Roman garden within a domestic home. Walls were adorned with surprising frescos of flora and fauna in many varying seasonal phases to become lasting places of joy. Truly bringing the feeling of celebrating life and nature within an interior, bringing the outside in. The rooms of many of the Roman Empire garden paintings, particularly including the 'Villa Livia'; are renowned for their accurate depiction of plant species with an illusionistic quality of perfect order. The atmospheric vista seems to reach way beyond - hence 'Semper Hortus', the 'forever garden'. Painting directly from my own garden, lemon and orange trees silhouette amongst olive trees, grape vines, figs and hydrangea - illuminated by heavenly blue skies.
198 w x 122 h (Framed 238 w x 161 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in an English George III frame originally housing a portrait by George Romney RCA.
A marriage between two vessels. Pale white faience French ceramics, once housing mythical elements of an 18th century chemist's ingredients which were redolent with occult associations and mystical tradition. The colourful names given by chemists to describe their concoctions often had little link to the actual substrates housed, but conjured the idea of the power of the ingredients.
31.5 w x 43.5 h cm (Framed 45.5 w x 57.5 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame.
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.
Luminous light shines through the silouetted translucent petals of the Spring Iris. They are frivolous, almost illusory, persisting harmony and beauty. Yet they are observed moments of fleeting beauty - there is a tension and a reverence when trying to capture glimpses of pure joy in the every day.
Oil and mixed media on Fabriano Paper
50 cm w x 70 cm h Unframed (Framed size 59 cm w x 79 cm h)
The precious citrus fruit showed status in ancient Rome. They were extremely rare and very, very prized. The Romans only knew citrons and lemons, it took centuries for their cousins to migrate from Southeast Asia and Western Europe. Lemons were luxury items, the first remains found in ancient Rome date to the time of Jesus Christ. Sfumato refers to tones and colours shading gradually into one an other, producing soft or hazy forms.
26 w x 23 h cm (Framed 39 w x 35.5 h cm) Oil and gesso on board in antique Italian bronze Papier Mache Bolognese Frame.
The House of the Golden Bracelet in Pompeii holds one of the most enchantingly beautiful garden frescos. It's terraces are pre-Roman and mytholigical frescos depict abundant views of gardens and reproductions of original Greek works of the 4th Century. I imagine the place to feel timeless, a marriage of myth and nature. A mysterious and immersive garden, silouettes and shapes surrounding the viewer.
163.5 w x 78 h cm (Framed 186 w x 100 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame.
A small ceramic greek jar takes the stage within the garden still-life. The pewter plate is filled with black grapes and the branches of a purple Cherry tree laden with fruit drape across the ground of the painting. The Romans were known to depict Greek artifacts and reproduction of Greek fresco within their own frescos. Imbued with symbolism and illuminated with bright light.
60 w x 45 h cm (Framed 86.5 w x 71.5 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in Italian antique frame.
Inspired by the 'Hare with Grapes' painting of Pompeii. Grapes were central to the Roman diet, and of course their worship of Bacchus the God of Wine. Often featured in fresco, coins or relief. They are symbols of Classical Antiquity. The pomegranate was considered an atribue of Venus, who was orignally the goddess of agriculture. They make an appearance in many fresco paintings as well as literature such as that of Ovid the Roman poet. For me these fruits are truly symbolic, and seen here placed within a kind of lararium or shrine of the home as offerings to the Gods.
57.5 w x 47.5 h cm (Framed 71 w x 61 h cm) Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame.
'Oleum Setis' - Oil and Brush in Latin.
The amphora shape is an ancient storage jar used to carry oil at sea. These beautiful ovid shapes carrying precious materials across vast oceans...
Framed 74 w x 64 h cm (61 x 51.5cm aperture) Raw pigment, oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
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.
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 )
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. 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. 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 )
115.5 h x 145 w cm (Framed 142 h x 171.5 w cm)
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in gilded and delicately verdigris French Antique Early 19th Century frame
18 w x 25 h cm (Framed37 w x 44.5 h cm)
Oil and gesso on board framed in English gilded Composition Louis XVI Frame c.1850
37.5 w x 26.5 h cm (Framed 47 w x 35.5 h cm)
Oil and gesso on board framed in Italian antique Gilded Composition Cassetta frame c.1840
46.5 w x 37 h cm (Framed 73 w x 58.5 h cm)
Oil and gesso on board in Italian early 18th Century frame, glazed with antique glass
58 w x 42.5 h cm (Framed 75 w x 59.5 h cm)
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique French Composition Bourbon Restoration Scotia Frame c.1850
"But like love the archers are blind
Upon the green night, the piercing saetas leave traces of warm lily.
The keel of the moon breaks through purple clouds and their quivers fill with dew.
Ay, but like love the archers are blind!"
- Before The Dawn - Federico Garcia Lorca
53 w x 42 h cm (Framed 71 w x 60 h cm)
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique gilded French Rococo Revival Frame c.1860
31 w x 38 h cm (Framed 46w x 57 h)
Oil and gesso on board in gilded 17th Century Venetian Baroque Frame with shell, glazed with antique glass
28 w x 35 h cm (Framed 43 w x 50 h cm)
Mixed media and gesso on board in antique English Regence Frame c.1820
81 w x 69 h cm (Framed 98.5 w x 86 h cm)
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique gilded frame c.1840
Horis Diei—Latin for “daylight hours”—is a celebration of the high summer garden, a moment suspended in warmth, colour, and movement. Painted from life, this piece draws on the energy of heliantus and rudbeckia, among other flowers growing freely in my garden. Their vivid, sun-soaked blooms embody the very essence of summer: brightness, abundance, and impermanence.
The Latin title connects not only to the sun-following nature of these plants—Heliantus, from helios, meaning “sun”—but also to a deeper reflection on time. These are the flowers of the longest days, flourishing during the most generous hours of light. In Horis Diei, I wanted to capture the vitality of that fleeting window, when life is at its fullest, and light stretches endlessly across the hours. The brushwork is gestural and layered, allowing each bloom to feel as if it’s caught in motion, responding to breeze and brilliance alike.
Mixed media and oil on board
80.5 cm w x 106 cm h Unframed size.
The harmony and beauty of newly opened sculptural peony flowers dancing in sunlight and shadows. Their beauty transient. I contemplate how nature can fill us with happiness through its effortless creation.
Mixed media and oil on Arches Oil Paper Glazed in Antique Frame
95 cm w x 65 cm h Unframed - (Framed size TBC)
Moments of fleeting beauty are captured and mirrored - the tension between glimpses of pure joy in the every day revered. The arrival of Spring is signalled by the blousy peony flowers, abundant and expressive, their faces tilting to the stars. They feel expansive, incandescent like a new constellation in the nights sky or transported by a twighlight tide.
Mixed media and oil on Arches Oil Paper Glazed in Antique Frame
95 cm w 65 cm h Unframed - (Framed size TBC)
Fleeting sunlight, shadows and glimpses of the bluest heavenly skies. A celebration of harmony and beauty in nature. The simple humility of the sun drenched lemon has a delicate fragility. Pure joy in the everyday, we dream of warmer climes and bright days.
Oil, gold leaf and gesso on board in rare outstanding Venetian Baroque Antique Frame c.1740
33.5 cm w x 27.5 cm h Unframed (Framed 51 cm w x 46 cm h)
The Iris creating delicate and fragile silouettes in the brightest lights. They visit fleetingly - like butterflies. Their dark purple hued petals are translucent making them feel diaphanous, weightless and intangible.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in Antique Frame
98 cm w x 78 cm h Unframed (Framed size 118 cm w x 99 cm h)
New Spring flowers, peonies and Fairy Lily dance together. Their shapes and forms imprint in my dreams. The abundance of these radiant flowers make my mind feel drunk with their beauty.
Mixed media and oil on Fabriano Paper
50 cm w x 70 cm h Unframed (Framed size 59 cm w x 79 cm h)
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
Oil and gesso on board. Unframed size 51 cm w x 39 cm h. Framed size 61 cm w x 48 cm h.
Oil, pastel and gesso on board. Unframed size 44 cm w x 32 cm h. Framed size 55 cm w x 41.5 cm h.
Oil and gesso on board. Unframed size 46 cm w x 35 cm h. Framed size 58.5 cm w x 48 cm h.
Oil, raw pigment, graphite and gesso on board. Unframed size 90 cm w x 72 cm h. Framed size 103 cm w x 85 cm h.
In I’r Môr, I paint the moment where land loosens its hold and water draws everything outward. This view of Hunmanby Gap becomes an inlet of passage—waves driving through a narrowing channel that feels as though it opens into the greater oceans beyond. The sun is low, its final light dissolving into the surface of the sea, and the tide carries both force and invitation.
I worked instinctively with raw natural pigments, gesso and oil, allowing the materials to echo the physicality of the place. Dense passages and scraped surfaces suggest rock, undertow and weather, while lighter veils of pigment hold the fading light at the horizon. The painting moves between weight and release: waves collide and break, yet the eye is continually pulled outward, toward distance, depth and the unknown.
This work is less a literal seascape than an emotional threshold—about movement, surrender, and the quiet pull of the sea as a place of leaving and becoming.
Oil paint, raw pigment, mixed media and gesso on board Unframed: 163 cm (w) × 77 cm (h) Framed: 180 cm (w) × 94 cm (h)
The final humble flowers from the end of Summer. They dance with vibrancy, their faces smiling to the sun. The garden embraces it's own imperfection, a tangle of twigs, seeds and flower heads - and creates a new moment. There is a Northerly freshness to the air.
Oil and gesso on board.
19 cm w x 22 cm h unframed size.
"So long as the earth shall survive and as each spring shall see it covered with flowers, the Rudbekia will preserve your glorious name...It's rayed flowers will bear witness that you shone among savants like the sun among the stars..." - Blunt 'The Compleat Naturalist'
A celebration of the Sun.
Oil and gesso on board.
19 cm w x 22 cm h unframed size.
The garden rustles with the sound of seasons changing. The late Summer flowers begin to transform into organic forms - pods and seeds. The changing light of the season brings new vibrant colours and wonderful textures. Cutting and gathering branches and flowers from the garden feels like a kind of meditation.
Oil and gesso on board.
19 cm w x 15 cm h unframed size.
Architectural delicate twigs and branches are revealed and accented by ice crystals from the first frosts. The vibrant cadmium Rudbeckia resemble bright stars and the skies are violet at dusk.
Oil and gesso on board.
19 cm w x 15 cm h unframed size.
The last moments of Summer, as the bright shining face of Rudbeckia remains long into the first glimmers of Autumn. The skies move swiftly with wispy clouds, the afternoon light takes on a violet blue. The seed heads decorate the garden with their graphic forms for Winter.
Oil and gesso on board.
19 cm w x 15 cm h unframed size.
The change from Summer to Autumn brings a new luminous delicate blue-violet light. If you glance out from your windows you will see that the light is completely saturated with this colour - it creates halos around objects. The last of the Summer flowers dance in their new dream.
Oil and gesso on board.
19 cm w x 22 cm h unframed size.
Oil and graphite on paper. Unframed size 77.5 cm w x 57 cm h. Framed 94 cm w x 76 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.
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.
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.
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board. Unframed size 51 cm w x 39 cm h. Framed size 61 cm w x 48 cm h.
Oil and gesso on board. Unframed size 51 cm w x 40 cm h. Framed size 64 cm w x 54 cm h.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board. Unframed size 91.5 cm w x 61.5 cm h. Framed size 104 cm w x 74 cm h.
Oil, raw pigment, graphite and gesso on board. Unframed size 64 cm w x 86 cm h. Framed size 76 cm w x 99 cm h.
Oil, graphite, raw pigment and gesso on board Unframed size 53.5 cm w x 66 cm h. Framed size 66 cm w x 80 cm h.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique window-shaped frame. Unframed size 46 cm w x 65 cm h. Framed size 56 cm w x 75 cm h.
Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in window-shaped antique frame. Unframed size 46 cm w x 65 cm h. Framed 56 cm w x 75 cm h.
The giant over-painted and waxed medieval monastery offering bowl. It sings of centuries of sanctity, sharing, of care, contemplation and faith. There is a feeling of constant but nothing is taken for granted. What is consistent is the light. The echo of dappled sunlight moves across the surfaces of the bowl - optimistic and pure. The simple unobtrusive bowl is full of humility and yet it is also most sacred and full of grace.
76.5 w x 66 h cm (Framed size 96 w x 86 h cm)
Encaustic wax, raw pigment and oil paint in antique frame from The Palace of Versailles.
Sanguinello or 'blood oranges' are one of the only varieties grown specifically in volcanic soil, with coastal breezes. They have the highest vitamin C content in the world due to the fertile soils of Mount Etna!
Orange is vital, full of energy, of warmth and happiness. This orange is more red, orange-red like the walls of the frescoes in Pompeii - a colour transformed from yellow to red in an alchemic reaction.
40.5 w x 33 h (Framed size 50.5 w x 42.5 h cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Lucia is a latin word meaning 'light'. Against tumultuous skies the brilliant lead white and cadmium yellow summer flowers illuminate. Bright and piercingly vibrant, they become all the eye sees. A blazing sea of flowers emerging.
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." - Keats
77 w x 64 h cm (Framed size 108 w x 95.5 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in large antique frame.
'Hydria' was the Greek name given to a type of water-carrying vessel. It also held oil and the votes of judges. Of course water is essential to life, as the egg symbolises new beginnings, or in fact the beginning of life.
65 w x 48 h cm (80.5 x 62 cm Framed)
Oil and venetian red gesso ground on board in antique frame.
The European grapevine has been used as a symbol since ancient times. In Greek mythology, Dionysus or the Roman 'Bacchus' was the god of the vintage, therefore bunches of the fruit were among his attributes. Throughout history wine has been drunk as a libation to the god, as a symbol of Jesus Christ.
The grapes and pomegranate placed on a Georgian pewter plate upon a medieval trivet become part of a vanitas celebrating beauty and life.
80 w x 57 h cm (Framed size 104.5 w x 82 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame from The Palace of Versailles.
The House of Octavius Quartio in Pompeii was home to some of the city's finest frescos and renowned for its extensive lush green garden. My little green jug, filled with freshly cut flowers from my garden contains -perhaps- some of the same specimens to be found in that glorious garden. I imagine the lush waterways of the long colonnaded garden and the sound of their fountains and carp pond surrounded by ornamental foliage, fruit trees, wild flowers and scented herbs. A dream and of a celebration of life.
45.5 w x 55.5 h cm (Framed size 67 w x 77.5 h cm)
Oil, encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
On a ’Pompeii Red’ Natural pigment ‘fresco’ surface, ‘Lararium’ is a luminous, delicate and offering painting. Based around the notion of the Roman Lararium or the shrine in the centre of the home. A shrine to the guardian spirits of the Roman household. Family members performed daily rituals at this shrine to guarantee the protection of these domestic spirits, the most significant of which were the lares.
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame.
52 w x 44 h cm (Framed size)
Cera meaning 'wax' in latin.
The wax surfaced medieval Spanish huge scale offering bowl tells a tale. It has been overpainted, stapled and re-waxed and glazed throughout its lifetime. Rumour has it that whenever there was an illness within the monastery, because the bowl was so revered and such an essential part of every day (being the main bowl on the communal table), it was thrown into the nearby river until washed clean by the currents - each time rescued and mended and brought back into the monastic space.
Cera is full of changing light, of history and energy.
76 w x 66 h cm (Framed size 96 w x 85 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique frame from The Palace of Versailles.
Dusk falls and highlights the outline of architectural agapanthus flower heads; bold brilliant Echinacea; soft vibrations of cornflower blue Scabiosa and Delphinium; and starry white Aster luminous against a pale viridian sky. The night time garden draws on.
Named after Titus Livius who was known as one of Rome's distinguished historians, he was known as 'the man from Pompeii' and the tones of this painting bear semblance to the classic greens found in the frescoes of Pompeii.
71.5 w x 48 h cm (Framed size 89w x 66 h cm)
Raw pigment, oil paint with encaustic damar and beeswax wax on board in an antique frame.
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.
Terra Rossa is the native colour of the Earth of Italy. The red base to the painting mirrors the red earth where the native grape grew. Lying on a medieval pewter bowl with a ceramic Roman bowl holding pomegranates in the background, these grapes are an offering.
51 w x 41.5 h cm (Framed size 65.5 w x 55.5 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame.
My pewter bowl of lemons is drenched in Spring sunshine. The light is reminiscent of the light that falls on the Cornish Coast and of the Mediterranean. The tones reflect blue of the sea and sand, the light is pure and clean. The blue spectrum light in this painting almost overwhelms the subject with luminosity, but also enhances the shape and complete form of the bowl and the fruit. There is something magical about this type of light, which draws people back to places. Our emotions are warm on a sunny day.
65 w x 47.5 h cm (Unframed size)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
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.
A monastic white washed walled space. Light and shade. Spanish earthenware ceramics and dutch delft plates propped. A paired back painting, for simplicity, contemplation - for reverie. The time to be lost in one's thoughts or a daydream.
47 w x 67 h cm (Framed size 54.5 w x 74.5 h cm)
Oil and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
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.
The Hortus was the name given to the central garden within a Roman home. A place to enjoy the notion of 'Otium'! A latin abstract term with a number of meanings, including: time at home, resting, contemplation and academic endeavours. It can have intellectual and virtuous implications. Activities that were considered in the Roman world, to be artistically valuable...and above all enlightening!
44 w x 35.5 h cm (58 x 49 cm Framed) Oil and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
My friends have found leafy lemons for me this Summer. They call out in their celebration of warmer climes. They are, heat, sun, happiness and joy! In my simple medieval pewter bowl in this contemplative space they feel emblematic.
61.5 w x 41.5 h cm (Framed size 75 w x 63 h cm)
Raw pigment, oil paint and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
This monolithic scale painting is my final painting in the "Hortulus Animae: Little Garden of the Soul" series.
It is full of dramatic skies, Summer blooms blazing and fading. There are the Sunflowers, the waves of the plants and flora within the banks of my garden. It is a time to contemplate, reconnect with nature and discover the beauty of the small things: hear the birds sing, watch the sunlight chase the dappled shadows, and see the garden grow and seasons change.
Janus was the god of beginnings and transitions in Roman mythology. The God of change. He was depicted as having two faces looking opposite ways, one towards the past and the other to the future. He was present in the beginning of the world, guarding the gates of Heaven, and presided over the creation of religion, life and even the gods.
200.5 w x 130.5 h cm (Framed 226 w x 155 h cm)
Raw pigment, Oil paint, gesso and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
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
In Roman culture the Viridarium was an internal garden sitting room within the Roman Villa, the walls were decorated with frescoes depicting plants and birds. This work is painted directly from my garden -it's mid-summer and the flowers are alive and abundant. My own little piece of paradise. I admire the Romans for their gardens - places of peace and tranquility, a refuge from urban life. Places that are filled with religious and symbolic meaning. And gardens that are inspired and influenced by civilisations across the World. There is such time for contemplation and inspiration here.
130 w x 90 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
An abundant celebration of Summer! My terrace full of nasturtiums, their yellow flowers heralding the change in seasons, their shape like the trumpets of Angels! We are being visited by butterflies and bees enjoying the flowers' sweet nectar. They bring joy, energy and creativity. This drawing is the first in a series of direct observational pieces based solely on the nasturtiums. The marks and feeling are immediate, strong and vital like the flower.
59.4 w x 42 h cm
Water-soluble pastel on Khadi paper
Nasturtiums were brought back to Spain in the 1500s after the Spanish conquests! Their trumpet shaped flowers signal the change of Spring to Summer. Their red, orange and yellow flowers are full of heat and energy - passion like Spain! They remind me of these warmer climes, dreams of places I've visited and wish with all my heart to return to!
59.4 w x 42 h cm
Water-soluble pastel on Khadi paper
Chloris was 'the Greek Goddess of Spring'. The undulating tangle of Nasturtium flowers are both delicate and gravity defying in their presence. Chloris represents a celebration of Spring, of flowers and new growth. These flowers feel like the essence of this.
"As she talks, her lips breathe spring roses: I was Chloris, who am now called Flora." - Ovid
59.4 w x 42 h cm
Water-soluble pastel on Khadi paper
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
Abundant Nasturtiums festoon every inch of the garden terrace. Their flowers like Angel's trumpets, their leaves like lily pads. They have a feeling of being underwater in a pool, their stems a tangle of tubas. A floating garden.
42 w x 59.4 h cm
Water-soluble pastel on smooth watercolour paper
Abundant Nasturtiums festoon every inch of the garden terrace. Their flowers like Angel's trumpets, their leaves like lily pads. They have a feeling of being underwater in a pool, their stems a tangle of tubas. A floating garden.
42 w x 59.4 h cm
Water-soluble pastel on smooth watercolour paper
"Narcissus" 53 w x 58.5 h cm (63.5 x 68 cm Framed) Oil, raw verdigris pigment and gesso on board in 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 great magnolia signalling the first signs of Winter turning to Spring. In my February visit to Cornwall, the peninsular is a month ahead..great beautiful pink and white noble blooms are the gentle awakening of Spring.
115 x 70.5 cm ( Framed 136 x 90.5 c
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
'Alba' a Latin word for 'white, clear, bright'. Its' connotations of the dawn as the sunrise begins with bright clear light. Alba illuminates.
35.5 x 26 cm ( Framed 47 x 37.5 cm )
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
The radiance of luminous cloud which surrounds the sunflower.
Oil, raw pigment, encaustic wax and gesso on board in antique frame.
108 w x 150 h cm (Framed 119 w x 156.5 h cm)
A stack of medieval bowls and storage jar in my studio. Once used for transporting across the seas and to hold oils or pigments from far away places. Their surfaces are worn as if eroded by the sea. Their potters slips and glazes so natural like the shifting sands, their usage perfectly every day.
Kabir (c. 1440-1518) wrote, in The Clay Jug:
Inside this clay jug are canyons and pine mountains And the maker of canyons and pine mountains All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars The acid that tests gold is there and the one that judges jewels And the music from the strings that no one touches, and the source of all water If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth: Friend, listen.... The God whom I love is inside
92 x 61 cm ( Framed 117 x 89.5 cm ) Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame.
From latin aurea *"golden" referencing the disk of light surrounding the heads of sacred figures. The sunflowers remind me of this light, their radiant crowns and faces turning to follow the sun.*
Oil, raw pigment, encaustic wax and gesso on board in hand-painted antique frame.
105.5 w x 75.5 h cm (Framed 124 w x 94 h cm)
The fleeting beauty of magnolia buds bursting into bloom change as life also begins to bloom again and the days get longer and the seasons change. The magnolias short but glorious life, like Japanese 'Sakura' blossom, speak of the impermanence of time and ground us in pure enjoyment of this moment.
47 x 67 cm ( Framed 66 x 86 cm )
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
60 w x 38.5 h cm (Framed 83 w x 62 h cm
A gift of the first flourish of Summers sunflowers.
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique hand-painted frame.
54.5 w x 46 h cm (Framed 70 w x 60.5 h cm)
Stars of magnolia in the dusky light, signalling the beginning of spring against brooding atmospheric grey-white skies.
69 x 59 cm ( Framed 93 x 82 cm )
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
46 h x 31 w cm (Framed 61 h x 45.5 w cm)
Shared ritual of the Japanese tea ceremony. This little solitary Tea Bowl created by Master potter Shoji Hamada speaks so much in its quietness and simplicity. The light in my studio flows around and illuminates this very special tiny sacred object.
34 x 28 cm ( Framed 50 x 43 cm )
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
82.5 w x 77 h cm (Framed 89.5 w x 84 h cm)
Inula Helenium faces the sun.
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
42 w x 63 h cm (Framed 75 w x 95 h cm)
Cadmium deep yellow sunflowers in French confit pot.
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique frame.
57 w x 78 h cm (Framed 72 w x 93 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment, graphite and gesso on board in hand-painted antique frame.
102 w x 71.5 h cm (Framed 120 w x 90 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in hand-painted antique frame.
47.5 w x 40.5 h cm (Framed 68 w x 61 h cm)
Huge scale field of suflowers and their radiant crowns. Helios is the god of the Sun in Ancient Greek. The painting is full of light, energy and drama.
Oil, raw pigment, encaustic wax and gesso on board in antique frame.
152 w x 122 h cm (Framed 188 w x 157 h cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
47 h x 57 w cm (Framed 60 h x 69 w cm)
Raw pigment, oil, charcoal and gesso on board in antique frame.
80 h x 90 w cm. Framed 89 h x 99 w cm.
Oil and graphite on Archers Oil paint paper.
130 w x 82 h cm
Oil and graphite on Archers Oil paper.
130 x 82 cm.
Watercolour, charcoal and graphite on paper.
59.4 w x 42 h cm.
Water and graphite on paper.
59.4 w x 42 h cm.
Watercolour and graphite on aquarelle paper.
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
61 w x 41 h cm (Framed 70 w x 50 h cm)
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame.
60 w x 40.5 h cm (Framed 69 w x 50 h cm)
Oil, graphite, indian ink and gesso on papyrus.
60 w x 42 h cm.
Oil, graphite and gesso on papyrus.
60 w x 42 h cm.
Watercolour and charcoal on aquarelle paper.
35 w x 25.5 h cm.
Watercolour, charcoal and graphite on aquarelle paper.
50.8 w x 40.6 h cm
Watercolour and graphite on aquarelle paper.
35 w x 25.5 h cm
Watercolour and graphite on paper.
70 w x 25 h cm
Kama is a word rich with ambiguity—it can mean kiln, oven, or stove in Japanese—but beyond that, it carries a sense of transformative heat and elemental change. In this work, I’ve tried to embody the feeling of kama not just as a functional vessel, but as a space of alchemy, where energy bursts forth, uncontrollable, and life is quite literally burned into clay.
The painting is layered with texture and weight—ash, earth, pigment—evoking the moment where matter begins to shift, to fuse, to become something new. Colour is caught in flux: darkened, scorched, and glowing at once. Kama is about that liminal state—between destruction and creation, energy and stillness—where the essence of something ancient is formed in fire.
Raw pigments, graphie, oil paint and gesso on board in handpainted antique frame. 70 x 98 cm ( Framed 92 x 118 cm )
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in hand-painted antique frame.
The dramatic seas at Godrevy beach, St Ives peninsular hangs in the background. The foreground is peppered with ancient medieval storage jars used to carry precious oils and spices across continents. The sea brings many treasures.
127 x 77 cm ( Framed 150 x 100 cm )
Oil, raw pigment, graphite and gesso on board in antique hand-painted frame.
Dusk light across silvered pools of water in St Ives harbour, lines from the fishing boats and the ropes mark the shifting sand banks.
Oil, sintered bronze and gesso on board in antique frame. 74 x 63 cm (Framed 92 x 80 cm)
I always imagine lemon trees lining craggy sea cliffs and edges. Somehow the sound of the sea always resonates in my ears when I see them. A celebration of life, of perseverance and freedom! Solis Occasum translates to 'sunset' in latin. The phrase "A solis orate usque ad occasum" roughly translating as 'from sunrise to sunset'.
38 x 32 cm ( Framed 56 x 50 cm )
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
The intimacy and delicacy of a Shoji Hamada Tea Bowl. The perfect form for this contemplative ritual. The makers hands and intuitive marks spill across the natural surface.
28.5 x 36 cm ( Framed 42 x 50 cm )
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Portus meaning harbour, or port, a haven or retreat. Dusk light and milky Spring sunshine illuminate St Ives harbour sands. The silvery light and great marks slice through the sand. Pools of water still, reflect.
Oil, sintered bronze and gesso on board in antique frame. 85 x 82.5 cm (Framed 103.5 x 100.5 cm)
The great Frejús earthenware ceramic jar, its surface encrusted with pale yellow to ochre lichens like the rooftops of St Ives. It emerges into light from the shadows. 'Shoji' (not only relating to the art of Shoji Hamada) but meaning 'screen', it is the sliding paper partition screen. In his book on aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows Jun'ichiro Tanizaki comments oil the role of Shoji in the interaction of light and shadows and the power of their tones reflecting on subtle nuances of life. The importance of mindfulness and noticing the small things.
79 x 98 cm ( Framed 99 x 118 cm)
Oil, raw pigment, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
The purity and simplicity of this Scandinavian richly pigmented wooden bowl, monolithic and carved from a single tree. The bowl, through toil and craftsmanship seems to take on a sacred calm.
81.5 x 63 cm (Framed 95 x 75 cm)
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in hand-painted antique frame.
'Irori' is the sunken hearth in Japan used to heat the home and cook food. I imagine steam and smoke, this sacred space of fire. Here the Frejús jar (earthenware pottery) is almost invisible, forming in the bright light like smoke signals from the stove.
76 x 97.5 cm ( Framed 96 x 118 cm)
Oil, raw pigment, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
'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.
Oyster shells and Belleek Neptune shell cup and saucer. The luminosity of the white inside the oyster shell reminds me of the brightest cloudy skies above the sea, the vibrancy of the light dancing through the fine porcelain like that of a sea worn shell fragment. 'Atargatis' was a goddess of fertility but also the first described Mermaid goddess.
56 x 40cm (Framed 81 x 64cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
I'm fascinated by the process of making the tiny Tea Bowl. Each phase has a certain synergy of energy from the shared Leach Pottery, where the potters make these simple everyday treasures, the intimacy of working with clay and allowing it to take your intuition and therefore create something so everyday and imperfect but perfect..to the final ceremony in tea. There is human connection through this special object.
43 x 31 cm ( Framed 63 x 51 cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
A pewter plate full of oyster 'Ostrea' shells. Abundance and life.
61 x 47.5cm (Framed 76 x 62cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
This giant delicate Japanese pottery storage jar would have transported precious perishables at sea. A monolithic vessel which speaks of past times.
63 x 137 cm ( Framed 92.5 x 166 cm )
Oil, raw pigment, charcoal and gesso on board in antique frame.
Still life composition or 'Opus'. The bowl is a pottery Roman bowl, simply and freely made, feels like its barely been touched by hand. But it still remains, illuminated by light, holding precious once-rare lemons. Its existence is incredible...how it is still with us after all the time past..I think of all the shifting sands and ebbing tides.
60 x 51 cm ( Framed 88 x 78 cm )
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
A group of once-rare and precious lemons sat within a crumpled brown paper bag at the edge of my studio table. They emerge from shadows cast by the foot of the huge lichen covered French earthernware Frejús jar. They are almost salt encrusted, they emerge as a precious object revealed hiding in dunes of sand
60 x 51 cm ( Framed 88 x 78 cm )
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique frame.
Persephone is the Greek Goddess of Spring. This still life of the pewter bowl, pomegranates and the budding Winter's branch. The pomegranates seeds awaiting the renewing warmth of Spring and Summer.
61 x 51 cm (Framed 75 x 65cm)
Oil and gesso on board in hand-painted antique frame.
54 x 44.5cm (Framed 71.5 x 61.5cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
62 x 47cm (Framed 84.5 x 69cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
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.
122 x 137cm (Framed 134 x 149.5cm)
OIl and gesso on board.
102 x 70cm (Framed 127 x 94cm)
Raw pigment, oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
59 x 42cm
Charcoal, watercolour and Indian ink on watercolour paper.
59 x 42cm
Charcoal and conte on watercolour paper.
59 x 42cm
Charcoal and Indian Ink on watercolour paper.
59 x 42cm
Charcoal, conte on watercolour paper.
20 x 20 cm (Framed 28.5 x 28.5 cm)
Oil, Indian Ink and gesso on board.
15 x 18 cm unframed
Oil and gesso on board.
22 x 19 cm unframed (Framed 29 x 26 cm)
Oil and gesso on board.
22 x 19 cm unframed (Framed 29 x 26 cm)
Oil and gesso on board.
Frejus is the name given to huge storage pots from a specific region of France. This huge lichen covered storage jar holds promise - from the precious oils and goods it once contained, echoing stories of trade and cultures connecting. It is now quiet and contemplative but is a key to our past. Frejus is full of light.
Raw pigment, oil, charcoal and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 92w x 103.5h cm (70 x 83cm aperture)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 55.5 w x 36.5 h cm (38 x 19 cm aperture)
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)
Tranquietas is Latin for peacefullness. It means to pause, relax and think. My antique paint brushes pause on the pewter dish in my studio - the tool behind ideas, a tension before I paint or perhaps the peacefullness of when I am still.
Oil and gesso on board in hand painted antique frame.
Framed 67 w x 56.5 h cm (52 x 43 cm aperture)
Ollam Latin for Pot. This huge lichen covered storage jar holds promise - from the precious oils and goods it once contained, echoing stories of trade and cultures connecting. It is now quiet and contemplative but its silence and pause sings with voices from the past. Ollam and the keys are emerging from the its sintered bronze grey darkness, illuminating with glances of light.
Raw pigment, oil, sintered bronze powder and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 89 w x 103.5 h cm (62.5 x 78cm aperture)
'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)
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)
Ad Lucem means 'bring to light' in Latin. A new period of learning and discovering, of bringing to light. Simple objects in the studio: the pewter spoon, the tiny wooden chair and pewter plate; my Biot or Frejus jar covered in bright ochre lichens - all illuminating in the light from the dark studio floor. The plate and spoon as an offering.
Oil, raw pigment, powdered mica and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 133 w x 109 h cm (117 x 94 cm aperture)
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)
'Umbra' means dusk in Latin. I draw in graphite powder - my umbra. What remains is a fleeting impression of the present moment. A celebratory collective image of my everyday objects that bring me happiness: my paint pots holding brushes, my brushes laid out. A pewter plate and spoon could be waiting to be painted or perhaps for my lunch! The precious mussel shell that was snuck into my hand bag by my partner Chris to remind me of our day at the beach.
Graphite, oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 111 w x 75 h cm (95 x 59 cm aperture)
'Olei Simpuvium' Oil and ladle in Latin. The Spanish small ovid storage jar transported oil. Its exterior was once accidentally splattered in green oily glaze (perhaps in a Triana Seville workshop)..its a complete one-off a rare-happening, and has survived all this time...here honoured by emerging from the shadows waiting to pour oil into the ladle, unlocked history suggested by the hanging rusty keys.
Raw pigment, charcoal, oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 71 w x 50.5 h cm (61.5 x 40.5 cm aperture)
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)
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 115 w x 98 h cm (85 x 69 cm aperture)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 84 w x 66 h cm (61 x 43 cm aperture)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 75 w x 64.5 h cm (61 x 50 cm aperture)
Oil, raw pigment and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 51 w x 61 h cm (37 x 47 cm aperture)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 56 w x 44 h cm (44.5 x 32cm aperture)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 102 w x 81.5 h cm (85 x 64 cm aperture)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 88 w x 78 h cm (67 x 56.5 cm aperture)
Oil, ink and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 74 x 55.5cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique hand painted frame.
Framed 107 x 91.5cm
Framed size 80 x 101cm (painting 60 x 82cm) Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Oil and gesso on board in remade antique frame.
15 x 13cm (Framed 29.5 x 27cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 74.5 x 58cm
Oil, graphite and gesso on board in antique Venetian frame.
Framed 131 x 156cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 63.6 x 74.5cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Based on the Story of RE (the Egyptian god who named everything on earth and mankind and became the first Pharaoh on earth -all from an egg out of the darkness) “RE” Size is framed size.
71 x 51cm
Oil and gesso on board in remade antique frame.
15 x 13cm (Framed 30 x 27cm)
Oil and gesso on board.
17 x 13cm unframed.
Finestra is a meditation on light, material and memory. Composed on my studio table in front of a window, the objects—two earthenware bowls of lemons, one holding a pair of serving spatulas, a 17th-century Italian maiolica jug, an unglazed water vessel, and small wax containers—are rendered in silhouette, transformed by the backlight into quiet, almost imprinted forms. The lemons, often depicted in southern Italian ceramics as symbols of vitality and abundance, bring warmth and familiarity, their presence connecting centuries of domestic ritual and visual tradition.
The red wax vessels—once used in a London bronze foundry to cast works by Elizabeth Frink and Henry Moore—introduce a subtle narrative of process and legacy. In Finestra, I explore the relationship between the functional and the poetic: how humble, timeworn objects, when placed in a certain light, carry a kind of still resonance. The work is not only a still life but a window into a contemplative space where past and present quietly converge.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 148 x 83cm.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 96 x 66cm
Oil and gesso on board in remade antique frame.
17 x 12.5cm (Framed 31.5 x 28cm)
Oil and gesso on board in remade antique frame.
17 x 12.5cm (Framed 30.5 x 26cm)
Oil and gesso on board in remade antique frame.
17 x 12cm (Framed 28.5 x 24cm)
Oil and gesso on board in remade antique frame.
17 x 13cm (Framed 28.5 x 24cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 80 x 77.5cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 75.5 x 60cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 22 x 18cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 54.5 x 46cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 79 x 93cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique hand painted frame.
Framed 39 x 48.5cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 23 x 18cm
Oil and gesso on board in 18th Century Antique frame.
Framed 38 x 33cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 50 x 60cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 50 x 60cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 43 x 33cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 36 x 44cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 66 x 57cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 46 x 51.5cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 51.5 x 55cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 87.6 x 68cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 100 x 86cm.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Framed 43.5 x 73.5cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
126 x 67cm (136 x 76.5cm Framed)
Negrita captures a moment at the beginning of spring, when the world starts to loosen its grip on winter and colour quietly returns. The painting centres around parrot tulips and roses—flowers that, to me, symbolise both fragility and strength. Their forms are sculptural, almost unruly, yet they hold themselves with a grace that feels deeply rooted in the earth’s seasonal rhythms.
These blooms are painted not as decoration, but as living forms caught in transition—unfurling, tilting, reaching towards light. The composition is expressive and textured, reflecting the energy and unpredictability of early spring. In Negrita, I was interested in capturing not just the appearance of flowers, but the atmosphere around them: the air, the stillness, the sense of something beginning. It is both a botanical study and a quiet celebration of seasonal change—where new life is felt before it is fully seen.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
126 x 67cm (140 x 80 cm approx Framed)
Rha is a meditation on place—its textures, its history, its quiet rhythms. At its heart is a bundle of Yorkshire rhubarb, known for its vivid pink stalks and cultivated in candlelit forcing sheds, a tradition unique to this part of England. The rhubarb rests in a deep, darkly glazed English earthenware bowl, its surface catching a wash of sky-reflected blue—an accidental but poignant connection between earth and air.
Alongside it lies a pale, almost spectral pomegranate, a fruit long associated with myth and memory. A pair of curling scissors and a worn tar pan complete the arrangement—humble, almost forgotten tools with a kind of archival presence. Rha speaks to rootedness and time, to the way objects carry traces of their landscapes, and how domestic fragments can echo larger histories. It’s a painting about cultivation, about the alchemy of growth, and about the way we quietly inherit and observe the places we live.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 119 x 74 cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
102 x 79cm (108 x 85.5cm Framed)
Diptych. Oil and gesso on board in antique frames.
Each side 50 x 100.5cm (61.5 x 111cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
66 x 76cm (82 x 92cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
112 x 73cm (129 x 90cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
34.5 x 40cm (48 x 52.5cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
34.5 x 40cm (48 x 52.5cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
15 x 12cm (25 x 22cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
15 x 12cm (25 x 22cm Framed)
Oil, charcoal and gesso on board in antique frame.
54 x 43.5cm (79.5 x 69cm Framed)
Srulu is a quiet study of form, contrast and the enduring presence of handmade objects. The painting depicts two traditional Puglian earthenware water jugs—one glazed in warm ochre, the other left raw and unglazed. There’s a quiet dialogue between them: one luminous and sealed, the other matte and porous, each shaped by human hands, earth, and fire.
The title Srulu, drawn from a local dialect in Puglia, evokes something intimate and untranslatable—perhaps a whispered name, a fragment of place, or a rhythm remembered. In this work, I was drawn to the way these vessels hold history without needing to explain it. They are practical forms, but also deeply sculptural—worn, imperfect, and dignified. This still life is less about objects as symbols and more about presence—the quiet sense that something or someone has just stepped out of view.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
34.5 x 42.5cm (54 x 62cm Framed)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 71 x 56cm (97.5 x 82cm Framed)
Oil on board in antique frame.
Contemplative studio still life. Ripe pomegranates abundant in their dark earthenware bowl. The tiny egg and sycamore dairy bowl...This work is about celebration of simplicity - purity and purpose. The dark and light have power and sense, an intensity through illumination. The egg is a gift, and the pomegranates a symbol of life and to life in the future.
(Framed 98 x 118cm) At Chris Holmes Antiques.
The monolithic giant clam also used as a font or stoup. These are powerful striking objects, size beyond your imagination.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Chris Holmes Antiques.
(Framed 101 x 125cm)
Simplicity, light and shade and the pure sculptural form of the lemons in Italian Earthenware and Delft bowls. Oil and gesso on board in antique handpainted frame. Work at Chris Holmes Antiques.
Framed size 64 x 49cm.
Oil and gesso on board in handpainted antique frame. Freya was the Norse goddess of love and fertility and mythological wife of Odin in Scandinavian mythology. This powerful impressionistic painting is full of power and surface, thick lacerated textures and depth. Observing the arrival of Spring with white amaryllis in bud, lilac and roses. Work at Chris Holmes Antiques. 88 x 66.5cm (Framed 107 x 86cm)
Oil and gesso on board. Gigantic palaver poppies float through gusty clouds. In Greek Mythology Hypnos was the personification of sleep - he was said to be a calm and gentle god, as he helps humans in need, due to their sleep, owns half their lives. Work at Gallerina. Unframed size 151 x 122cm
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. The coolness of the Spring breeze and the glow of the warming sun. 'Olwen' is a celebration of spring - known as one of the Spring Goddesses, wherever Olwen trod pure white clovers sprung from the ground. Work at Chris Holmes Antiques. 125.5 x 65.5cm (Framed 107 x 86cm)
A collection of Roman glass vials and jars, their surfaces slowly wearing down as if washed by the ocean. This light aqua colour was the earliest colour of Roman glass, it is the natural colour of the silica in the sand most commonly used at the time. Depending on time, place and maker the colour would vary. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
58.5 x 46 cm (framed 76 x 64 cm)
"Selkie" comes from the mythology of the mermaid - a creature that lives as seals in the sea and shed their skin to become human. The giant fronts of seaweed remind me of these transformative creatures, beautiful glossy skins lying in the shallow turquoise and purple sea anenome filled rock pools.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Chris Holmes Antiques.
74 x 102 cm (framed 90 x 117cm)
Oil on board in hand painted antique frame.
(Framed 39 x 44cm)
Lodi ewer or old French "Evier" water jug in the shadow of winter light.
Oil painting on board in antique frame. (Framed 64 x 82cm)
Demeter was the Greek goddess of the harvest, she presided over the sacred law and the cycle of life and death. Autumn pomegranates abundant in the brown glazed earthernware bowl, a combination of this simple bowl from the earth and a celebration of fruits from the earth. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
55.5 x 38 cm (framed 68.5 x 52 cm)
The simplicity of the French porringer bowl, its dull glowing pewter surface with eroded with its lifespan - beauty in its scars. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Chris Holmes Antiques.
39 x 29.5 cm (framed 46 x 36 cm)
'Raddir' meaning 'the voices'. Coastal groins at St Ives bay harbour front - their silhouettes look like figures in the distance. The volcanic rocks that dot the beach are wet with rain and glossy with hair-like seaweed. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
71 x 92 cm (framed 89.5 x 119.5 cm)
"Stormur" translates as 'strong gale' in Icelandic. Here on the coastline near St Ives the rocks change from silver to yellow ochre depending on the way the sea feels. The land shows you ways to the ocean through its mouths and openings and the wind ignores all blowing both into one, all seaspray and loss of sight. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
80 x 62 cm (framed 98 x 78 cm)
Studio still life with bay laurel, goose egg, porringer bowl, Delft plate, 1750's wine jar and ripe figs - a scene both contemporary and historically, all about plenty. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
72 x 94 cm (framed 87.5 x 106 cm)
Alteo spells the beginning of Winter with a riot of oak leaves, berries and amaryllis. In Greek mythology the name "Amaryllis" was the shepherdess who pierced her heart for her unattainable love 'Alteo' a shepherd with Apollo's beauty and Hercules strength who only loved flowers. For 30 nights Amaryllis pierced her hear at his door with a golden arrow and finally revealed a crimson flower which sprung from her blood-she had brought him a new flower and Amaryllis won Alteos heart.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
120 x 71cm (framed 137 x 88cm)
Looking out to 'The Stones' an area of natural reef between St Ives and Godrevy. The waves (öldur in icelandic) swell and engulf the mussel beds below my feet - all purple shells on ochre agate veins within volcanic rock. This place reminds me of the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote and Los Hervidores (the boiling pots) with its chasms and fissures stripped by the battering ocean. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
89.5 x 116 cm (framed 114 x 140 cm)
Pomum the 'apple with many seeds'. I love the arrival of the first pomegranates and figs as autumn and winter arrive and the seasons turn. Every year I'm enthralled by the vibrant colours of these joyous celebratory fruits - the symbol of abundance.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
26 x 18.5 cm (framed 38 x 30 cm)
'Brim'tud' is the sound of the waves. In the distance beyond the wild seas you can make out Godrevy Lighthouse in Cornwall near St Ives. I'm standing amongst vast mussel fields on volcanic cliffs which coarse down through fissures and chasms of ochre filled agate rocks deep below the sea to create 'the rocks', a natural reef making this area of coast one of the most treacheours for sailors to navigate. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
98 x 76 cm (framed 110 x 90 cm)
One of my from my collection of tactile hand-blown antique wine bottles - the darkest green glass c. 1750. This painting becomes about offerings, wine, the lemons and the autumn pumpkin. When found in archaeological excavation these bottles date places and communities to areas. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
49 x 45 cm (framed 63.5 x 60 cm)
A celebration of the season of life - the studio still life with 'low subjects' - the goose egg, the porringer bowl, laurel leaf, ripe figs and pumpkin. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
82 x 57 cm (framed 101.5 x 76 cm)
Studio still life with brushes and pomegranates. Inspired by my visit to Barbara Hepworth's studio in St Ives - the tools of her trade set against whitewashed walls and white plaster casts in progress, outside monoliths of stone awaiting carving - all surrounded by this abundant garden dotted with her incredible bronze sculptures. The idea that the studio is place for raw creation.
Oil and gesso on board in hand painted frame.
51 x 41 cm (framed 59 x 49 cm)
The Porringer - a shallow small bowl originating in the medieval period in Europe, made of pewter or silver - European porringers have two handles on opposite sides..sometimes known as bleeding cups but used for porridge and soups. This simple shape from every day life, with studio brushes and rope. Oil and gesso on board in hand painted frame.
45.5 x 30.5 cm (framed 60 x 44 cm)
The bowl or 'porringer' associated with labour for subsistence. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
41 x 31.5 cm (framed 51 x 41 cm)
Abundant autumn winter flowers - amaryllis, roses, oak leaves and berries create a cacophony of colour and form. Carpo was the goddess of the fruits of the earth and non more appropriate for drawing close winter day and this celebration of earth's fruits and life. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
90 x 80.5cm (framed 109 x 99cm)
Meaning 'embankment' in Icelandic. A place that will always belong - the fishermens ropes tied and looped every day as they have for hundereds of years in St Ives harbour. A woven history. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
75 x 106 cm (framed 93.5 x 125cm)
Lobster pots and fishermens sea rope thrown in haste in the growing piles at the edge of the harbour wall in St Ives- the seals have appeared below in the water awaiting the rejects from the fishermens catch - a magical place where time has stood still. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery. Oil and gesso on board in hand painted frame.
76 x 102 cm (framed 93 x 119 cm)
How can the feeling of the coast and the angry ocean overwhelm you? Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
53 x 39.5 cm (framed 56.5 x 43 cm)
At Godrevy beach near St Ives, Cornwall...beach gives way to volcanic natural rocks which form a natural reef called "The Stones" all the way back to St Ives. The rocks are filled with ochre yellow agate and encrusted with purple mussels. Shelter is found in rock pools in the depths of rocks fissures from the roaring tide beyond. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
80 x 75 cm (framed 84.5 x 90 cm)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
61 x 51 cm (Framed 79.5 x 69 cm)
Two Japanese storage jars - almost four foot high, these would have been used at sea for transporting eggs! I love the way their shape reflects their contents and how equally delicate and fragile their surfaces are and yet they are solemn and monolithic, big enough to feed the thousands. The light weaves across their surfaces in my studio highlighting their fragility and imposing quality.
122 x 152 cm
116 x 95 cm
151 x 122 cm
57.5 x 49.5 cm inc. frame.
121 x 101.5cm inc. frame
Villa Cyrnos is a villa in the Cote d'Azur in the South of France - the gardens are abundant with lemon and fig trees, and enourmous pines - the air is filled with the scent of lavender and of essential Provence - a perfect dream. Work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 41 x 33 cm (Framed 57.5 x 47 cm)
Oil and gesso on board. Late summer delphiniums abundant and celebrated in this perfect blue painting. Work at Gallerina.
92 x 122 cm (148 x 118 cm Framed)
122 x 93.5 cm
The Delft plate, the curling scissor and the three lemons - symbols of the studio. A celebration of these special forms which have become an essential element of my life and work. 66 x 53 cm (Framed 81 x 67 cm)
Oil, gesso and lapis lazuli pigment on board. An explosion of Yves Klein blue, the delphiniums are a celebration of life and sunshine, dramatic dark shadows contrast against this saturated colour. Work at Gallerina.
122 x 122 cm (Framed 148 x 149 cm)
Sunlight.
Framed 51 x 42.5cm.
90 x 121cm inc. frame.
74.5 x 63.5 cm (inc. frame)
74 x 47.5 cm
59 x 64 cm
122 x 150.5 cm
122 x 129 cm
A small family of storage jars from Matera, Puglia. Matera sits on a ridge with deep canyons to either side. At least 9,000 years ago, and earlier, humans settled in natural caves in the canyon walls, extending them until thousands of grottoes honeycombed the town. The caves make up Italy’s oldest continually inhabited dwellings, “the most outstanding example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean” - Unesco. 56 x 66 cm in antique frame.
115 x 122 cm
101 x 122 cm
74 x 109 cm
90 x 61 cm
66 x 50 cm
100 x 120 cm without frame.
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.
Little contemplative bowl. 39.5 x 40cm inc. hand painted frame.
Contemplative tiny bowl. 30 x 24.5 cm inc. hand painted frame.
Friend of the fig "Philosykos". 40.5 x 30.5cm inc. antique frame.
Oil and mixed media on board in antique frame.
136 x 88 cm (inc. frame)
Oil on board in antique frame.
92 x 67 cm (inc. frame)
Oil and mixed media on board in antique frame.
112 x 88 cm (inc. frame)
Oil on board in antique frame.
59.5 x 40.5 cm (inc. frame)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
108 x 89 cm (inc. frame)
Oil, dammar and gesso on board in antique frame.
114 x 83 cm (inc. frame)
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
130 x 75cm (inc. frame)
Oil, pastel and gesso on board in antique frame.
86 x 61 cm (inc. frame)
"An Annual Pilgrimage to Remind Me" is the title of the exhibition this work is part of. I call it Bacchus, because Bacchus was the God of the Vine, winemaking, wine alongside ritual madness and theatre! The landscape depicted is the vineyard "La Geria" region of one of my favourite places in the World - Lanzarote. The landscape is red, filled with heat and energy and the surface scattered with these 'c' shaped delves in the earth surrounded by small volcanic lava stone walls and containing lucious green vines with abundant grapes. The land feels cool at the Volcano tops and red and full of passion at the lower earth surface and below.
156 x 106 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
This huge monolithic shaped water collector made of lava stone, half carved by maker half by nature. It reminds me of a huge font. It has double meaning from collecting water to feeling like it has a higher purpose.
98 x 79 cm Oil and gesso on board in painted antique Italian frame.
A perfect imperfect onion bottle, its deep pontif and its surface pitted and lacerated from it's burial and time. These bottles would be used to keep water, wine, brandy or gin at sea - their flat bottoms designed for balance. It's surface reminds me of the volcanic surface of Lanzarote. There is this feeling of fire from the earth.
59 x 50 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
A perfect imperfect onion bottle, its deep pontif and its surface pitted and lacerated from it's burial and time. These bottles would be used to keep water, wine, brandy or gin at sea - their flat bottoms designed for balance. It's surface reminds me of the volcanic surface of Lanzarote. There is this feeling of fire from the earth.
65 x 55 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Looking across the Ogwen Falls to a small mountain falls which runs through the landscape hiding Llyn Cywion. This expansive landscape always makes me want to walk and explore, gives me the feeling of the vastness and majesty of Wales.
75 x 56 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
The Ogwen Falls, Snowdonia with the mountain Tryfan looming in the background. I've never reached the top of Tryfan, yet, but walked the Glyders Fawr and Fach. Tryfan has an icy otherworldly quality - I can only touch its cold waters.
75 x 56 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
The Victorian hearth in my studio filled with my collection of inspiring objects: a mortar, a game rack, a copper pan, a tar pan. Objects essential to life. All feel imposing and significant to me.
138 x 79 cm Oil on board in antique painted Italian frame.
Another place of pilgrimage for me. I will always desire to return to this spot where the Devil's Kitchen Llyn Idwal lake mixes with Llyn Ogwen to form the dramatic volcanic glacial falls. The most dramatic beautiful awe inspiring place with the same red as the volcanic land of Lanzarote.
90 x 110 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
The golden basin or the golden shell is an area of Italy famed for its abundant lemon groves. Here my shells are the link from my lemon series into the exploration of the notion of pilgrimage. Shells have so many connotations, one major pilgrimage Camino de Santiago is guided by marker clam shells.
110 x 57.5 cm Oil on board in antique gold frame.
The shell often represents birth and are used as baptismal fonts.
41.5 x 40 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Atlas, the son of Poseidon is often depicted carrying the shell on his back representing the world.
45.5 x 40 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
As the shells and fonts hold water as a baptism for life, this water collector from Teguise in Lanzarote shows a unique way of harvesting the rare and precious water on this barren island. Again, showing how important water is for life. When the infrequent rain or night mists descend water collects within and around this volcanic stone pod, tiny plants grow around the outside and in turn filter the water which drips slowly into the collector below. These collectors are found in small shrine like boxes or cupboards in external passages or window ledges in Teguise.
61 x 76 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique French frame (intentional watermarks!)
In the series of small giant clam shells I explore the different connotations of the shell. Here the birth of Venus, the shell represents when she was born from the sea.
45.5 x 40 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Inspired by the Arabic 'giardini' of Sicily, these paradise oasis gardens filled with citrus and exotic plants. Beautiful intimate compositions, full and abundant.
76 x 137 cm Oil and gesso on board in hand-painted Italian frame.
Inspired by the Arabic 'giardini' of Sicily, these paradise oasis gardens filled with citrus and exotic plants. Beautiful intimate compositions, full and abundant.
76 x 137 cm Oil and gesso on board in hand-finished antique Italian frame.
The citrus grove with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. Inspired by the poem "The oranges of the island are like blazing fire, Among the emerald boughs, And the lemons are like the pale faces of lovers, Who have spent the night crying." - Abd ar-Raham, Sicilian-Arabic poet. Arabic associations with beauty, intimacy, succour..an oasis in an arid desert land.
148 x 134 cm Oil, gold leaf and gesso on diptych folding canvas.
We laid the table, the egg was laid.
81 x 64 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique gold leaf frame.
The cargo of lemons so precious they are wrapped to protect their fragrant surfaces.
88 x 64.5 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique French frame.
The next in the series after Sanctus to Petrus. The clementine tree.
66 X 78 cm Oil and gesso on board in hand-finished antique frame.
18th century Sycamore dairy bowl with incised banding. The only wood that would not impair flavour to milk or butter in the dairy. A perfect historic form. Gesso, oil paint and pencil on board in antique frame. 51 x 35.5 cm
18th century Sycamore dairy bowl with incised banding. The only wood that would not impair flavour to milk or butter in the dairy. A perfect historic form. Gesso, oil paint and pencil on board in antique frame. 46 x 41 cm
Inspired by the frescos in the Crypt of Original Sin in Matera, the "Painter of The Flowers of Matera" has narrated scenes from the Old and New Testament in a cycle of frescoes dating back to the 9th century. A. D.. of the rupestrian wall painting. This dreamscape grove of citrus trees includes a clementine tree which relates to Sanctus to Petrus, one of the scenes illuminated in the crypt. Petrus (St. Peter)'s remains are said to now lie in the Clementine Chapel in Rome and the name Peter means 'rock'. The trees here are rooted to the palest rocky outcrop.
120 x 102 cm Oil and gesso on board in hand-finished antique frame.
My Italian pasta bowl with its beautifully painted rose, so different to the delft I've been collecting, its earthearnware ceramic is so much more primitive but has the feeling of being so much part of life, used and loved! It sits perfectly in the corner of my studio below my birdcage table, catching the light, reminising.
80 x 100 cm Oil and gesso in hand-finished antique frame
Precious collection of objects in my studio - a 15th century blue and white glazed tile, an Italian floral pasta bowl with its perfect painted rose and lemons a cargo so valuable they are wrapped for protection.
47 x 54 cm Oil on gesso on board in antique frame.
Sold graphic contorted trunks of Lemon trees ache with age and the weight of an abudance of lemons as they line your path guiding you through the mists of the grove, at your feet ancient forms of flora and fauna reveal their own microcosm of delicacy and beautiful forms. A magical place. Oil and gesso on board in antique hand painted frame. 132 x 105 cm.
This thick lacerated chalky surface of the painting hold the sculptural form of the Mortar. The earliest mortars and pestles date back to around 35, 000 year B.C. This shape is possibly one of the most historic primitive forms still in use to day and therefore so familiar and powerful. 61 x 53 cm.
Still life in my studio...my favourite spot. French metal chair and delftware charger filled with Sfusato Amalfi lemons. My favourite things in my favourite place. Gesso, oil paint and charcoal on board in antique frame. 99 x 129 cm
Under the watch of Vesuvius, the Amalfi coast lies giving birth to sweet lemons from the fertile volcanic earth. Gesso and oil paint on board in antique frame. 34 x 27 cm.
Sfusato lemon. "Under the thick light yellow peel, beats a tender flesh. A sweet and juicy soul in a land to discover." - Consorzio di Tutela Gesso and oil on board in antique frame. 32 x 28 cm.
Sfusato lemon from Amalfi, so called because of its pointed ends, like a spindle - a fuso *in Italian. Gesso and oil on board in antique frame. 35 x 29 cm.*
Dappled bright sunlight casts long shadows across the path through the lemon grove. The last gusts of wind and dew drops of rain begin to evaporate and release the delicate scent from the lemons rind and tiny blossoms. 152 x 117 cm Oil and gesso on board in hand-finished antique frame.
This thick lacerated chalky surface of the painting hold the sculptural form of the Mortars. The earliest mortars and pestles date back to around 35, 000 year B.C. I am entranced by the light and shadows that fall around their simplistic forms - how many days have laid their daylight upon these vessels, how many days have these objects seen past? Gesso and oil paint on board in antique painted frame. 121 x 74 cm.
Mysterious mists of the lemon grove in Amalfi. A sense of magic as the grove fades into the depths. A sense of the beyond. Fresh tiny lemons begin to grow stark in colour against this forest of emerald and dusky grounds. 146 x 126 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame hand-painted. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate 07771962494
The Delphinium flower is a symbol of infinite possibility and believing that anything is possible. Stretch your current beliefs and keep reaching to the stars. The stretch of these delphinium stems in the Victorian copper, juxtaposed alongside this 19th Century French weathervane representing the winds of change. Gesso and oil paint on board in antique frame. 140 x 140 cm.
A solitary chair in the outhouse at Erddig Hall, North Wales. A soft pool of light illuminates a working scene, cart horse tack litters the table amongst pots of rich dark waxes and polishes ready to be smeared all over the coach Postillion's boots.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 98 x 75 cm (127 x 98 cm including frame)
Inspired by the Medici gardens of Boboli, these gargantuan Amalfi lemons sit in a Delftware charger. In 1765 when Pietro Leopoldo inherited the Medici legacy he adopted the 'Enlightenment' theory as means to educate the Florentine people. Part of his methodology was to preserve all of the Fruits of Italy part to teach students and part to save the trees by allowing farmers to understand how to graft specimens and save them from extinction. He made wax work casts of lemons and these were displayed in La Specola along with painting by Bartolomeo Bimbi who recorded every fruit growing in Tuscany with accuracy. Each fruit is rendered life-size as the lemons are here. 79 x 69 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. May 2015.
'A revered or precious object' - Enshrine. These French confit pots holding their bountiful treasures. 101 x 71cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Waterlilies at Plumpton Rocks. Watching the blue skies reflect around the lily pads, their stalks in shadow in the translucent milky waters. 60 x 76 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame from Paris. Find this work with Panter & Hall, Pall Mall, London.
The Waterlily eaters "Lotos" a tension, a tangle of colours and masses and fluidity in the depths of the lake. 74 x 115 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Waterlilies at Plumpton Rocks. The Naiades were fresh water Nymphs who inhabited rivers, streams, lakes and springs of the earth. Dappled sunshine filled light reflects the blue skies above this beautiful setting of lush foliage. 120 x 100 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Find this work with Panter & Hall, Pall Mall, London.
Waterlilies at Plumpton Rocks, exploring the reflection and refraction of water around their delicate edges, like floating clouds giving way to deeper waters. 91 x 81 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique Parisian frame. Find this work at FFin Y Parc Gallery.
Waterlilies at Plumpton Rocks. Dappled clouds of lily pads. 114 x 90 cm Oil and gesso in antique frame. Find this work with Panter & Hall, Pall Mall, London.
The most beautiful luminous Italian confit jar from Matera. Its subtle opalescent glaze reflecting pinks and blues. Essenza della bellezza!!
Spring filled anemones or "Windflower", its name coming from the belief that the flower only opens in March "Coy anemone that ne'er uncloses, Her lips until they're blown on by the wind." The Greeks believed the flower was a gift from the wind god Anemos and sent to herald his coming in spring. Gesso and oil on board in antique frame. 86 x 61cm inc. frame.
Spring filled anemones or "Windflower", its name coming from the belief that the flower only opens in March "Coy anemone that ne'er uncloses, Her lips until they're blown on by the wind." The Greeks believed the flower was a gift from the wind god Anemos and sent to herald his coming in spring. Gesso and oil on board in antique frame. 86 x 61cm.
Puglian pots sit atop an antique birdcage table. Gesso and oil on board in incredible antique frame. 100.5 x 125cm inc. frame.
Winter is the season for caring and goodwill - a good friend of mine brought me the lemon from Sorrento, another friend brings me a crate of Valencia oranges from one of his three trees from his home in Spain. I get to choose the crop from the three boxes, each box of colour varies slightly, their leaves a different shape and the skin dimpled in their own unique way. The gift of the last crop of these sun-filled giant globes - joy, well-being and cheerfulness. Thank you! 23 x 25 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
Amalfi lemons - the story of sunshine. Gesso and oil paint on board in antique frame. 59 x 43 cm.
Ready for Marmalade making with blushing hot Valencia oranges, an entire crate a gift from my friend's tree in Spain. Each tree gives rise to different shades of the most vibrant sweet oranges. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Work has been purchased by "New Light" for their Private Collection which is available for tour both to public and corporate spaces.
Sfusato giant lemons from the Almalfi coast sit perfectly in their giant Delftware chargers. 83 x 69 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame hand-painted. Find this work with Panter & Hall, Pall Mall, London.
The perfect imperfect English Delft plate c. 1740...its makers hand on this loose painted surface so perfect, the colour so full of life. 66 x 55.5 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. Find this work with Panter & Hall, Pall Mall, London.
A collection of sunshine yellow conserve pots from Matera near Puglia, the landscape providing a bounty of riches ready to be preserved for the family for winter or used to encapsulate a stew capturing all of the flavours and joy of this place. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Exploration of the energy of new spring/summer flowers. Growth and metamorphosis, shape and impermanence. 93.5 x 122.5 cm Oil, pastel and gesso on board.
Study of the Amalfi lemon tree, its new leaves forming around yet green lemons like birds fluttering with life. Oil and gesso on coarse canvas on board. 110 x 155cm. Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Winter Show.
Rare horse bells produced by Robert Wells. The bells would be attached to the collars of horses and would make their own distinct music as each different team of riders approached...you could tell who was friend or stranger through the stillness of the air. Bells are selected in threes like this for their harmony. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 70 x 52 cm (78 x 60.5 cm Framed). Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Winter Show.
"The Sweet Life" image these antique Puglian conserve jars jam packed with their summer lemon harvests. Their delicious textures and colours enhancing the taste of their contents. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 31 x 51 cm (framed 45 x 65 cm)
A precarious pile of cast iron pans in the pantry in Erddig. Their surfaces blacked, flaking showing heavy use from ovens full of burning embers. 64 x 77 cm (90 x 103 cm inc. antique frame) Oil and emulsion on canvas.
The final flourish of life from black and white tulips, their stems bend from the weight of water in their huge blousy petals, the rains batter them down to the ground and dappled sunshine illuminates dew drops on their leaves.
Rare and beautiful Victorian giant clam shell, brought back to the UK by a sailor around 1860. This open shell represents helping us rid ourselves of inhibition so we open up when under scrutiny or pressure. The notion of expressing ourselves clearly and opening in the same way that the Giant Clam does in nature welcoming the healing and revitalising energy of the Sun each morning. Inks and oils on paper in antique frame. 77.5 x 56 cm (97 x 72 cm framed) Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
Northern European Bread Bowls approx. 100 years old. Each one has its own personality, each formed by its makers hands and thumbs pressing rivulets down either side. The colours and glazes make each one individual and different from the last. Oil and gesso on board. 47 x 40 cm (60 x 52 cm framed)
Hungarian Bread Bowls - the marks running up the sides are immediate marks made by hands, each stripe irregular and gives a sense of the maker. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 54.5 x 39 cm (framed 58 x 42 cm)
This striking ochre of this Puglian jar from Matera, Italy is unique to the region. It reminds me of glowing vibrant everyday life. Oil and gesso in antique frame 29 x 38 cm (framed 43 x 53 cm)
This tiny conserve jar from Matera sits silently...remembering. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 31 x 51 cm (framed 45 x 65 cm)
Sheep shears redundant for the Winter months. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 27 x 34 cm (framed 40.5 x 47.5 cm)
Two vibrant sweet Sorrento lemons. Oil and gesso in antique frame 27 x 19 cm (framed 35 x 28 cm)
Enamel ware bowl stacked full of ripe sweet lemons and scented sage...I can picture the fruits hanging on trees and walking through groves and fields of delicately scented herbs. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame 48 x 34 cm (framed 40 x 54 cm)
I've been obsessed with ceramics from Puglia, lemon trees from the Amalfi cost..my good friends Julie and Rudi returned with the most perfect fragrant Sorrento lemon from her antiques buying trip to Italy. The lemon meant so much, filled me with such joy! Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 16 x 11 cm (24.5 x 19 cm framed)
“A Rushlight in love with it’s own brilliancy,once boasted that it’s light was brighter even than that of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Just then a door opened, and a puff of wind blew it out. On lighting it, it’s owner said: “Cease now your boasting. Be content to shine in silence. Heavenly lights do not blow out. Know that not even the stars need to be relit.” - The Farthing Rushlight, Aesop’s Fables. Oil and gesso on board in antique Parisian Frame. 77 x 60 cm (101.5 x 79 cm framed) Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Winter Show.
An ancient shape - the rushlight holder. Never mass-produced these simple iron shapes were produced by local craftsmen and blacksmiths, the earliest recorded piece in 1693. Rushlights were still found in use in Wales until mid 20th Century. This piece seen in Plas Mawr, Conwy. One of Aesop's Fables "the vain rushlight," describes a personified rushlight bragging that it is more brilliant than the sun, moon and stars. The rushlight is then blown out by a slight breeze. The person who re-lights the rushlight advises it to be more humble. Oil and gesso on board. 23 x 38 cm (34 x 36.5 cm framed)
The zesty life of Naples in this sharper yellow lemon... 17 x 15 cm Oil and gesso on board.
The lemon is as rich as the most delicate glow of gold filigree... 17 x 15 cm Oil and gesso on board in antique frame.
The blackest of all the Black Tulips "Queen of the Night", but as black tulips don't exist this is the darkest of all dark purples....a mystical flower. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 41 x 41 cm (52 x 52 cm framed)
Light illuminates the shapes and edges of these hand thrown tiny terracotta pots in the studio. Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
Large Earthenware Spanish vessels in the attic of Plas Mawr, Conwy - a perfectly preserved vignette of Elizabethan life. Wind whistles through the eves and the wooden wattle and daub structure of the building gently sighs and creaks. Here in the dark attic shards of light coming through tiny windows illuminate the most vibrant signs of the tools of life - the washing buckets, wash bowls, cotton aprons and newly laundered clothes hang along the walls. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 116 x 92 cm (130 x 107 cm including frame) Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
Sycamore dairy bowls filled with rosemary and herbs on a lead window kitchen ledge at Plas Mawr, Conwy. In Elizabethan times rosemary billowed through life with scent - not only used for cooking it was a medicinal symbolic plant citing wisdom and faithfulness. The flowers, boiled in tea, were an all-purpose medicine. Putting the leaves under your pillow guarded against nightmares. The ashes of the wood, burnt, were used for cleaning teeth. Brides and grooms exchanged rosemary wreaths instead of rings; burned as insence and planted or strewn on graves. There is a still peaceful quality here, of light and reflections. These objects integral to life.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 63 x 75 cm (79 x 89 cm including frame) Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
A vignette of scattered dishes filled with delicate deep prussian fragments of mussel shells and large grains of sea salt strewn over a tiny dining table in the attic at Plas Mawr, Conwy.
Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 49 x 60 cm (60 x 71 cm including frame) Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
Stack of scalloped edge crockery sits upon an old oak sideboard lacerated with scars and marks, imprints of time.
Oil and gesso on board in antique Venetian frame. 49 x 60 cm (60 x 71 cm including frame) Find this work in the New Lights at Mall Galleries exhibition 15 - 20th Sept.
'Wash Pot' Mixed media and oils on paper. 73 x 53 cm
Lemonade bottle, nails, the blue flag, spanner and sycamore bowl. Intriguing everyday objects. Mixed media and oils on paper. 76 x 53 cm
Large Earthenware vessels in the pantry of 17th Century Country House Erddig, Wales. During the late 18th and 19th Century 10 servants portraits were commissioned, and still remain intact in the servants quarters of the house, these were rare and showed a great respect and mutual loyalty between the servant and family. The servants quarters have a wonderful feel, a happy place - filled with bold colour and bountiful with everyday objects - from copper pans, and jam jars filled with preserves to their bread and cheese making implements in the pantry. I felt that these vessels represented this rich life, the tapestry of the place. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 64.5 x 88.5 cm (84 x 108 cm including frame) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
Known as glazed earthenware or stoneware, these two bowls are Italian c1900 originally from Naples but they mirror the pair in the Pantry painting which are found in Erddig Country House, Wales. This type of bowl has been produced and used throughout Europe since at least Roman times and is a shape and form that is ingrained into our psyche. A delight to observe, use and touch. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 54.5 x 70 cm (69 x 85 cm including frame) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
The distinctive white chalky pantina of the French metal chair in the dappled shadows of a still life of peonies and lilacs, entangled by a great block and tackle rope. "The French created elegant chairs that transformed sitting from a formal duty into a pleasure" - Henrietta Heald Oil and gesso on board. 79 x 139 cm Currently at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate...soon find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Winter Show.
The distinctive white chalky pantina of the French metal chair in the dappled shadows of a still life of peonies and lilacs, entangled by a great block and tackle rope. Mixed media on board. 60.5 x 165 cm Currently at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate...soon find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Winter Show.
*”Contempt for flowers is an offence against God. The lovelier the flower, the greater the offence in despising it. The tulip is the loveliest of all flowers. So whoever despised the tulip offends God immeasurably.” - Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip. *Oil, mixed media and gesso on board. 77 x 77 cm (99x 99 cm including frame) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
The perfect time of year - spring, when the tulips have bloomed and the garden bursts into life - the heavy rains still threatening the delicate blooms so their life is impermanent and a fleeting blousy beauty. In the seventeenth century people placed such an importance on the flower that: 'The tulip was,'the French horticulturalist Monstereul wrote, 'supreme among flowers in the same way that humans were lords of the animals, diamonds eclipsed all other precious stones, and the sun ruled the stars'. 'To have discovered the black tulip, to have seen it for a moment...then to lose it, to lose it forever!' - Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip. Oil, mixed media and gesso on board. 123 x 56 cm Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014
By stunted oak and withered beech On wind-wild nights she watches From the nightjar in the trees To sing his somber melodies; She’s come by way of Doxey Pond By the bulrush, reed and front Where milk-white moonbeams shatter On the black and silent water As the night pulls tight its shutters Before the coming of the dawn.
In the peat-dark waters whisper The phantoms of the deeps Of an age-old coppiced wood Where the ancient Mere Witch sleeps Her ancient sleep; Still the peat-dark waters seep Below the crumbling cottage walls Draped with pennywort and fern; In the East a darkness falls where the elfin bonfires burn. [...]
- Lisa Summers, Jenny Greenteeth
Oil on board in antique frame. 120 x 94 cm framed.
18th century turned sycamore dairy bowl in Erddig Country House pantry. Sycamore is odourless and tasteless so it didn't affect the taste of the milk. This little rustic bowl was tucked high on a shelf but had the most incredible surface of wear and tear - knowing how it had been used and well loved. This simple satisfying form provides into the lives of those who crafted them. Mixed media on gessoed board in antique frame. 35 x 44 cm (55 x 68 cm framed) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
A collection of identical pewter coffee/tea pots awaiting their next outing in Erddig Country House servants quarters. Oils and gesso on board. 66 x 66 cm. Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
In Erdigg the sink and draining board are covered in lead to reduce damage to valuable pottery and silverware. Mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame. 55 x 37 cm (74 x 55 cm including frame) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
In fitting with Erdigg Country House, Wales's history we tend to think that Wales' history is written in coal dust and steel, but in fact Wales became the first Industrial nation and the copper "Copr" industry was at its heart. The fabric of the communities and the landscape of wales was changed through its industrialisation. Here a copper bread pan sits with a pair of Victorian sheep shearing scissors. Oils and gesso on board in antique frame. 61 x 41 cm (77 x 62 cm including frame) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
The studio. Oils and mixed media on board in antique frame. 91 x 71 cm (119 x 100 cm framed) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
Ancient brushes in the studio. Oil and mixed media on board in antique frame. 60 x 50 cm (79 x 69 cm framed) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
The significance of bread and its importance to life. Bread transposes meaning across cultures - from being everyday sustenance to being part of the celestial and ritual. Mixed media and oil on board. 75 x 102 cm Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
Ends of Victorian painted organ pipes with streaks of gold leaf sit with a silver reflector light and a halo of rusty keys, and rusty nails. Mixed media and oils on board in antique frame. 67 x 44 cm Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
A deep icy blue 'rindle' or stream cuts through the glacial landscape of Snowdonia's Ogwen valley. It's so cold the water is freezing over and tiny icebergs are forming on it's surface, mounds of snow drift over rust coloured grasses. Oil on board. 65 x 39.5 cm. Work to be auctioned at Ffin y Parc, Llanwrst on 7th December 2014 to raise funds for MENCAP.
Snowy clouds like ghostly vapours form over this iced landscape in the Ogwen Valley Snowdonia. Oil on board. 65 x 39.5 cm.
This painting marks a transition from my Chester studio to my Harrogate studio, and this feeling of loss moving away from the close proximity to the Welsh landscape - a place that will never leave my thoughts and inspiration banks. I revisit the Miner's tracks up the Vivian Quarry near Llanberis. Oils on board in antique frame. 82 x 58 cm (100 x 75 cm including frame) Find this work at Ffin Y Parc Gallery, Llanrwst, Wales until August 30th 2014.
First painting in my new home - I'm surrounded by a range of inspirational amazing ancient objects. A saxon stone head, a block and tackle rope, Victorian organ pipe ends and this little wooden bowl with a spout which once was used to grind flour. Oil on canvas in antique frame. 116 x 58 cm (120 x 74 cm including frame) Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
Invitation to Travel My child, my sister, Think of the rapture To go there to live together! Love at leisure, Love and death The country that looks like you! Wet suns, These scrambled skies For my spirit the charms, Mysterious Of your treacherous eyes, Shining through their tears.
There all is order and beauty,
Luxury, calm and voluptuousness.
Gleaming furniture, Polished by years Ornament our bedroom; The rarest flowers Mingling their odors The faint scent of amber,The rich ceilings, Deep mirrors,The oriental splendor, Everything speak, At the core secret Its sweet native language.[...] - Charles Baudelaire
Mixed media and oil on canvas. 101 x 55 cm (117.5 x 70 cm including frame)
Balsamic Scented Geranium plant fills the air with its heady perfume in the summer sunshine. Oil on board. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington.
Summer study of dynamic growth and new life. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington.
Capturing the fleeting beauty of glorious summer tulips in full heady bloom. Summer light and shade luminous, vibrant and delicate. 104 x 83 cm Oil on plywood. Antique Frame.
Truth. "Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté." - "There, all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace and pleasure." - Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire Encaustic wax and oil painting on board. 34 x 26.5 cm
Vibrant luminous blue anemones in this dark black Indian vessel. The promise of summer in the studio still life. Encaustic wax and oil painting on board in antique frame. 37 x 57 cm (52.5 x 72.5cm including frame) Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Gallery, Monmouth until August 30th 2014.
This set of wax paintings highlight the fleshiness and the life of the flowers. In particular the waxy rose petals and stems of this almost anemic rose Amnesia. Encaustic wax and oil painting on board. 38 x 60.5 cm (52.5 x 72.5 cm framed)
Study of abstract blooms in spring. Oil and gesso on board in antique frame. 37 x 30 cm (56 x 46 cm including frame) Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Gallery, Monmouth until August 30th 2014.
Fallen trees and stormy skies. The inside of a tree's trunk bright orange in the rain against the blackness of its wood. Mixed media on canvas. 90 x 115 cm approx. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Swinton Park Lake Superior in Winter. Oil on board. 129 x 98cm approx. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Walking through Storth Wood the river links Lake Superior ro Storth Pond. Spongey banks of ferns and bracken surround the fast flowing waters. Oil on board in antique frame. 84 x 69cm Coming soon to Ffin Y Parc Gallery.
Jervaulx Abbey in East Witton, Yorkshire was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire. Now ruined and full of stacks of carved stone fallen from the abbey. Its an tranquil and beautiful place, an evocative remaining link to our pasts. Mixed media on paper. 74.5 x 56cm Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Jervaulx Abbey in East Witton, Yorkshire was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire. Now ruined and full of stacks of carved stone fallen from the abbey. Its an tranquil and beautiful place, an evocative remaining link to our pasts. Mixed media on paper. 75 x 53cm Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
We all have our own gods. Whether it is love of a place or an object or a feeling. Sacellum in Roman religion means small shrine. Sacred objects or sacra were stored or deposited for safekeeping. Like bringing that pebble back from your walk, or the grandmothers ring you treasure in memory. This work links to the Pompeii series Lararium and Culina Pompeii. Mixed media on paper. 51 x 83cm Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Early dairy bowl, an ancient shape from our pasts. Gesso and natural pigment on raw canvas. 53 x 43cm Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
A narrative between found objects rescued from the beach. The Blue Flag, the Barbeciw, sun-bleached painted wood panels, salt spray eroded rusty nails…what is one mans junk is another mans treasure! Items that remind of our discovery of beautiful places and moments spent with loved ones. 88 x 63 cm framed. Sculpted gesso, oils and mixed media on plywood.
Many of the Conwy series of works incorporate found objects - bits of string, rusty nails, fragments of wood from the sea front. Flotsam and jet some and the bits of life that are left behind. They act as links to our memories and the connections they ignite. 88.5 x 63 cm framed. Sculpted gesso, oils and mixed media on plywood.
The beginning of the study of Plas Mawr Elizabethan Country House in Conwy. Stepping up from the seafront a hidden gem of Conwy. Plas Mawr is all dark and light, chiaroscuro. It has this ornate naïve plasterwork throughout featuring symbols of heraldry and the owners initials ‘R’ (Robert Wynn). The space is filled with levels of light, signs and marks of the past. The walls tell a thousand words. Peter Smith historian said “the most perfect and the most complete memorial to Elizabethan Wales”. 53 x 63 cm framed. Mixed media on paper. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Part of the Pompeii series. A banal every day object–simplicity in this functional object –the bread pan. Formed by hand in turn forming food to give life. Simplicity of giving Vita –life force. I like the way that these objects created by craftsmen are instantly familiar to us even if we don’t understand their end uses. There is an instant connection to them, a resonance of the beginnings of our culture. 57.5 x 83 cm framed. Mixed media on paper. Find this work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Shadows and shapes of land and boats blending into one another. There is a sense of industry in this scene, you can smell smoke from the boats fires filling the air their soot becoming the clouds in the sky. The ropes and rigging are free and natural, yet intense and knotted and somehow imprints of human thoughts and needs. I wanted to capture the simplicity of their fluidity and tension. 85 x 70 cm framed. Oil on plywood.
The start of the Conwy series. Found objects at the beach edge - weathered wood once part of a fisherman’s boat, heavy duty fabric blue flags scatter across the pebbled shore…dusk falls…in the distance the shores of Deganwy. We found a special place… 93 x 73 cm framed. Mixed media on paper.
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.
"Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies in morning, sailors warning" In the low tide I can pick up anything she left behind said the sea. A tug of war. 45 x 32.5 cm Oil on board. Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Gallery, Monmouth until August 30th 2014.
Standing at the edge of Conwy marina - a tangle of life - ropes to hold us tight, keep us safe. Encased in seasalt the rough fibres are luminous against the falling dusk. A dusky pink sunset illuminates the Quay side waters. 45 x 32.5 cm Oil on board. Find this work at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Gallery, Monmouth until August 30th 2014.
One of the thing that always strikes me about Llanberis Pass is its ability to change, sometimes it has the appearance of gentle swathes of hills as its craggy surrounding mountain tops are obscured and enveloped by mists and cloud. It’s a glacial valley where mountains have crashed together creating this rough cut valley and this point of light in its dip which is always familiar and illuminated no matter the light condition. Here Llanberis in the last winter snow falls, Volcanic and calming in its dramatic contrasts–a feeling of Zen like a Japanese landscape. 130 x 52.5 cm framed. Oil and mixed media on gesso sculpted canvas in 200 year old frame. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
The ebb and flow of Conwy Estuary, North Wales - the dark landmass of Deganwy shadowed in the distance as the sun sets pink over the prussian blue water. 36.5 x 32.5cm Oils on plyboard. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
The chink of the ropes blowing against the masts of the tiny boat on the vast tidal sandbanks of the Winter estuary of Conwy. Conwy and Snowdonia black and capped with the first dusting of snow. All else is still and silent in this quiet isolation. 36.5 x 32.5 cm Oil on board. See the work at Ffin Y Parc's Christmas Exhibition from 1st December - 22nd December 2013.
Autumns yield of voluptuous luscious pomegranates. I've always loved the symbolism of the pomegranate - from representing fertility, prosperity and marriage - then the darker side the Greek mythology of "the fruit of the dead" sprung from the blood of Adonis. For me its arrival symbolises Autumn and the wonderful change of colours all around us. 53 x 43 cm (59.5 x 49 cm framed) Mixed media and oils on canvas. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
Exploration of Plas Mawr, Conwy. Scene from the pantry...These strangely formed objects from the past are unfamiliar but reminiscent of the every day – objects and shapes somehow connected to our lives. Perfect forms and functions supplying us with our daily needs – our “cynhaliaeth”. Whispers of the past. 76 x 96 cm framed. Mixed media and waxes on paper. In double glass 200 year old antique frame. Meaning “Subsistence” in Welsh.
Translates “My memory” in Welsh. Exploration of Plas Mawr,an Elizabethan House in Conwy. Upstairs in the attic rooms a room is set filled with historical objects and furnishings, in the darkest shadows this luminous washing jug and bowl awaits. There is a feeling of suspended time in this place ready for the next hands to touch and fill the bowl with water. 79 x 87 cm framed. Mixed media and waxes on paper. In double glass 200 year old antique frame. Translation "To Remember"
An assemblage of objects. The blue flags, real rusty spanners flaked into layers by the salty ocean. Shapes of boats rigging suspend the scene. The frame is part of the work…its rusty wire reaches from behind and becomes part of the work–as if a line drawn by hand. A gathering. 48 x 55.5 cm framed. Oil on plywood and rusty spanners.
This large scale plaster fresco style work is a tangle of seaside objects – the lobster pot, the left behind barbeque, the broken up buoys and the sea shaped tree roots. Its physical and vibrant – unnatural and natural colours lay side by side – gifts from the ocean. 86 x 99.5 cm including 200 year old gilded frame. Fresco and oils.
Knotted for all of eternity. Rope, wires, seaweed tangle together at the waters edge and encase items we have left behind–taking them back to the sea–slowly devouring their surfaces with a wonderful salt spray patina. 59 x 76 cm framed. Oil and plaster fresco on plywood in 200 year old antique frame.
In the kitchen at Plas Mawr, Conwy. What looks like a little chair on top of a cupboard is in fact a flat bread drying rack. The colours and patina of the flaking walls reveal hidden colours. 40 x 50 cm. 53 x 63 cm in antique frame. Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
Doorway out of Plas Mawr into their gardens. This heavy fortified door is covered in huge metal rivets and made up of tiny bits of replaced wood which have been added over its entire lifetime. It sings of history and of past lives and care. 43 x 53 cm. 71 x 61 cm in antique frame. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
Part of the Conwy "found objects" series. Inks and papers are encased in wax as I explore the forms of my flotsam and jetsom findings. There is an organised chaos but a joyful feeling to these objects casually strewn by the sea.
50 x 37.5 cm. Wax and oils on plywood.
The rough hewn edges of tangled ropes and wires at the waters edge. These tense, strong ropes holding us fast and safe anchoring us. Their synthetic colours become luminous and otherworldly in the onset of darkness. 106 x 82 cm framed. Oil on plywood.
Dusk seascape as the night draws closer. An intense pink sunset illuminates the ocean over the tops of the moored fishermen's boats. Deganwy across the estuary is black and volcanic pouring onto the water. 105 x 74.5 cm framed. Mixed media on paper. Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
Tumbling water over rocks, bright yellow mossy grass. This little home grips on for dear life a battle against the torrent it is strong and persistent. 63 x 83 cm Oil and mixed media on paper.
As dusk falls over Conwy sea fronts, silence and darkness envelops and the chink of ropes and poles of the boats gently rocking on the rocking water edge. A little house on the edge of the walls-its illuminated windows casting warmth, as if welcoming back the sailors from the sea. 63 x 83 cm framed. Oil and mixed media on paper. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
A wind sock at the seas edge captures the gusty day. 47.5 x 55 cm framed. Oil on plywood.
Amnesia roses are the faintly grey roses in this luscious bouquet of flowers from Quince, Brighton. I have tried to capture the impermanence of their beauty. The textures and feelings of the marriage of flowers. This explosion of beauty. The wax the flesh of their living petals. 50 x 37.5 cm Oil, wax and mixed media on plywood.
Still life of bountiful English roses. Discovered in ‘Quince’ florists, Brighton. Quince used to stand outside Libertys in London – I remember I once photographed and worked on a series of paintings 13 years ago based on their phenomenal colour and form flower displays. To find them again was a joy. Here there are Vuvuzela and Amnesia roses. The ground is poured wax and oil carved into – I wanted to have the textures and feelings of the fleshy petals and spiky stems. Not to paint with perfect representation but that feeling of fun and life. 50 x 37.5 cm Oil, wax and mixed media on plywood.
There is a small solitary outbuilding on the road to Capel Curig. Surrounded by this immense landscape. It feels isolated, a retreat to shelter from nature, but also a very special place to observe its wondrous surroundings...fields of burnt sienna and umber gorse and heathers, punctuated by ancient trees blown sideways by the wind…at the foot of Snowdonia. With its distinctive turquoise door and shutters...those who have followed this route will undoubtedly remember it as a landmark, a point on their journey…it is ingrained in my memory with familiarity. 49 x 36 cm unframed. 71 x 54 framed. Oil on plywood.
Part of the Conwy Estuary series. Wales’ light is spectacular, ever changing and dramatic. One moment you have dark brooding skies, the next water and skies are illuminated pink picking out definite abstract shapes in the landscape, flitting and sparkling across the water in this winter seascape. 87 x 61 cm framed. Oil on plyboard. 200 year old antique frame once holding Venetian seascape.
Deep prussian blue and Payne's grey swirling skies mirroring the sandbanks which are revealing below as the sea begins to flow back into the estuary. Stormy clouds reflect onto a solitary boat resting in the sand. 88 x 67.5 cm framed. Oil on plywood.
The view across Llyn Peris (lake), near Llanberis, Snowdonia. The landscape here is so ancient, the vista of bygone times. I'm standing in the remnants and remains of the miners cottages, once a busy, painful place of hard graft and endurance. The sadness in the fact that their windows of their lodgings faced inwards so they were unable to gaze and contemplate this view in their rest times, which I'm sure would have raised their spirits...as we gaze from our windows at home to the places that ground us. 97 x 78 cm. Mixed media on canvas. 200 year old antique frame.
There is a certain point at dusk when all objects and landmass becomes one-shapes begin to morph into each other and light touches everything in the most unusual way. The resulting scene is one of abstracted shapes, but a sense of peace and tranquility…a time for rest. 73.5 x 58 cm framed. Oil on plywood. Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
View from the Quay Hotel, Deganwy. Organic flowing forms of the liquid sandbanks of the estuary illuminated by a winter sunset across the snow dusted landmass of Conwy and beyond. 52 x 42 cm framed. Oil on board.
View from the Quay Hotel, Deganwy. Sandbanks and little fishing boats with their silhouetted masts lie in the drawing out water as the sun sets. 55.5 x 42 cm framed. Mixed media on board. Ask for this work at Ffin y Parc Gallery
Still life with Viburnum branch. 37.5 x 37.5 cm image approx. Oil on plywood 200 year old antique frame.
The beautiful graphic shapes of summer tulips. 37.5 x 37.5 cm image area. Oil and mixed media on plywood. Antique frame. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors
Culina was the kitchen in the Roman house. This everyday object - a cooking pan connects so much as an integral part of everyday life. I have this fascination with forms of function connect so much with life from the primitive to life today. Shapes which resonate with feeling of warmth and of nourishment. A joy and celebration of the everyday and family. 85 x 57.3cm Mixed media and oils on paper. Antique blackened frame. Work with touring exhibition New Lights first Mercer Gallery Harrogate then Biscuit Factory Newcastle.
Lararia or Lararium were household shrines in the Imperial period. This fresco opening inside of a lararia from Pompeii was a set in wall-niche surrounded by a riot of Greek-inspired mythological wall-paintings and a assorted number of patron divinities. Domestic Lararia were used as a sacred, protective place for commonplace symbols of the families change and continuity. Objects were placed within the niche at different symbolic times of life to protect, influence and guard. The flat-bread was another important part of everyday Roman life. The banal quality of this in juxtaposition to something that was also everyday feels so resonant with our cultures today. A joy and celebration of the everyday and family. 89 x 58.5cm Mixed media and oils on paper. Antique gilded frame. Work in New Lights touring exhibition until early 2014.
The first snows of the year - Ogwen Pass is always ready for our 'restless legs' to ascend. High up in Snowdonia, this volcanic glacial landscape gets covered in a blanket of thick snow. "Soon the snowflakes will fall softly down, And every object on the land below, Will wear a white, ornamental crown. She has laid down, a blanket, of her, white tears, masking the world, in her, chillingly, cold beauty. 150 x 106cm. Mixed media and Oils on plywood. Find work at Gallerina, Darlington, County Durham.
Summer lemon tree. Part of the garden series inspired by the frescos of Pompeii and the chapel of Livia in Italy. Mists creep through the trees as the sun rises...there is a sense of being surrounded by a magical forest. 107 x 77 cm. Fresco on plywood. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors
"Winter Garden" Part of the garden series. The garden is blanketed in thick snow, thick stems of the hardiest undergrowth puncture the icy surface...the fir trees are black like japanese brushes against the cold atmosphere. 119 x 81.5cm. Mixed media and oils on plywood.
"Autumn Garden" The summer flowers are fading and drying, stems closing ready for winters. All around colour turning to ochres and auburn. Here I'm observing pots of plants on the patio, the landscape of the garden in the background, the wind is whistling through the stems. 100 x 82 cm. Mixed media and oils on plywood.
Part of my 'garden series' - direct, raw impression of a layered newly blooming landscape. Here you can make out the dark soil in terracotta pots in the garden, little delicate flowers of the the likes of Verbena catching the light. In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. Her festival, the Floralia, was held between April 28 and May 3 and symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, drinking, and flowers. Work on plywood 82 x 119cm.
Part of my 'Garden Series' working direct from life in the garden, direct impression, sunshine and mark making, a mysterious landscape of breathy air mellow through the new summer flowers. The shape of a shrub prop in the pots. Chloris was the goddess of flowers, a Nymph of the Islands of the Blessed. She was the wife of Zephyros (the West-Wind). Chloris becomes the Goddess Flora. "As she talks, her lips breathe spring roses: I was Chloris, who am now called Flora." Ovid Mixed mediea work on mdf 82 x 122cm
Part of the 'Garden Series' inspired by the RHS Tatton Park show 2012. I'm painting direct from life in the garden, keeping my marks minimal and impressions limited but purposeful trying to capture the moment when the wind breathes through the flora. Zephyr was the gentle wind of the west and the interceder between the World of the living and the Underworld. Zephyr was the fresh wind who brought the spring rains that were so valuable for awakening the nature. Mixed media work on plywood 55 x 80cm.
Part of the Plas Mawr, Conwy Series. These wooden spoons attached to the lime washed plaster wall. You can imagine when their irregular shapes were handcarved into these instruments by hand, the person dedicating time and care and love of the form..then to go on to be used to cook to further enrich lives. The sap which made the tree strong living on in these simplistic human forms. The beauty of the everyday. Work on paper, mixed media 28 x 38cm. SOLD.
Plas Mawr, Conwy. Interior landscape of this incredible building. Objects with great sense of physical history and past time experienced in their stillness. Dish cloths hang by the great stone fireplace in the kitchen. Work on paper, mixed media 28 x 38cm. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors
Welsh for "Spoons". Part of the Plas Mawr, Conwy Series. These wooden spoons attached to the lime washed plaster wall. You can imagine when their irregular shapes were handcarved into these instruments by hand, the person dedicating time and care and love of the form..then to go on to be used to cook everyday with love to enrich lives. The sap which made the tree strong living on in these simplistic human forms. The beauty of the everyday, the warmth of the object. 63 x 83 cm framed. Mixed media on paper. SOLD.
The Hallway leading to a tower in Plas Mawr, Conwy. Interior landscape of this incredible building an original preserved Elizabethan building, dating from the 16th Century one of the best of its era in the UK CADW are the Welsh preservation agency responsible for its upkeep. The place has a great sense of physical history and past time no more so experienced in stillness and the ambient blue light in this hallway which “breathes” secrets of the past and a strong sense of that time being now. 53 x 72 cm. 63 x 83 cm framed. Mixed media on paper. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors
A windy day at Devil's Kitchen in Snowdonia. The background is ink and monoprint on paper, in the foreground you can make out a wind sock capturing the gales across the rugged black landscape. SOLD.
An abstract landscape of planes and shapes, the miners cottages link together as if sheltering from the elements. Protecting and enclosing.
Work on paper. Oils and mixed media. Ogwen Falls in Wales, part of which is known as the Devil's Kitchen. Here the rushing water cascades at force over jet black rocks into deep chasms of rock carved out by the glacial waters over time.
Whist walking the Devil's Kitchen I came across this little hut in the landscape which was nothing more than a square box, newly placed and tied to the ground with these big thick bright blue nylon cables. The contrast against the landscape was graphic and tense..it represents a struggle for us humans surviving the elements in such a place. The box the ultimate sanctuary away from the world. The same way that the birdcage in my previous works is about having the freedom to escape and return, this is about protecting from the escape. Background landscape Llanberis Pass.
Whist walking the Devil's Kitchen I came across this little hut in the landscape which was nothing more than a square box, newly placed and tied to the ground with these big thick bright blue nylon cables. The contrast against the landscape was graphic and tense..it represents a struggle for us humans surviving the elements in such a place. The box the ultimate sanctuary away from the world. The same way that the birdcage in my previous works is about having the freedom to escape and return, this is about protecting from the escape. Background landscape Llanberis Pass.
Whist walking the Devil's Kitchen I came across this little hut in the landscape which was nothing more than a square box, newly placed and tied to the ground with these big thick bright blue nylon cables. The contrast against the landscape was graphic and tense..it represents a struggle for us humans surviving the elements in such a place. The box the ultimate sanctuary away from the world. The same way that the birdcage in my previous works is about having the freedom to escape and return, this is about protecting from the escape. Background landscape the miners tracks in Padarn Country Park, Wales. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
Study from the waterfall at Devil's Kitchen near Ogwen in Snowdonia The work is on flat canvas, mixed media creating a stony ground and crackled surface. I aim to capture the wind swept almost barren landscape and the power of this glacial waterfall which has etched deep into the black glossy rocks. 2008.
“Pods”, “Junk”, “Spam”. “Beina”, “Escombaries”, “Brossa”. Still lives in the studio after “I’m so Happy” paintings, experimental surfaces and the love of the rawness of edges translates into these three images with handmade frames. These are masculine paintings, powerful mark and surface making. Hidden symbols of every day banal life - the legs of a chair in the background of Beina basket with coconut pods, the wire shaped basket sitting on the table top in Escombaries, the shadows of my paint cans under the table in Brossa. They say all things happen in 3’s hence the 3 paintings. 3 also represents Mars - talent, versatility, joviality, magic, pure joy of creativity, new adventures, rewards and success. Winning Sir Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize painting 2012. SOLD.
“Pods”, “Junk”, “Spam”. “Beina”, “Escombaries”, “Brossa”. Still lives in the studio after “I’m so Happy” paintings, experimental surfaces and the love of the rawness of edges translates into these three images with handmade frames. These are masculine paintings, powerful mark and surface making. Hidden symbols of every day banal life - the legs of a chair in the background of Beina basket with coconut pods, the wire shaped basket sitting on the table top in Escombaries, the shadows of my paint cans under the table in Brossa. They say all things happen in 3’s hence the 3 paintings. 3 also represents Mars - talent, versatility, joviality, magic, pure joy of creativity, new adventures, rewards and success. SOLD.
“Pods”, “Junk”, “Spam”. “Beina”, “Escombaries”, “Brossa”. Still lives in the studio after “I’m so Happy” paintings, experimental surfaces and the love of the rawness of edges translates into these three images with handmade frames. These are masculine paintings, powerful mark and surface making. Hidden symbols of every day banal life - the legs of a chair in the background of Beina basket with coconut pods, the wire shaped basket sitting on the table top in Escombaries, the shadows of my paint cans under the table in Brossa. They say all things happen in 3’s hence the 3 paintings. 3 also represents Mars - talent, versatility, joviality, magic, pure joy of creativity, new adventures, rewards and success. SOLD.
Study for Beina is the pencil work produced in advance of “Beina” which won the Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize at Gallery Yns Mon 2012. Kyffin Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century. Banal symbols of every day life in this still life in the studio. The simplistic shape of the basket, the life force of the coconut pods, their femininity and their primitive history combined with rawness, powerful masculine surface making ground and connect us. 63 x 83 cm framed. Mixed media on paper. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors
Pallas is a wise warrior Goddess (Greek) she is the daughter of Zeus. Pallas relates to our ability to trust our intuition and inner wisdom, to stand up for our integrity rather than dwelling in emotional mode. Pallas can represent the 'father daughter' relationship. Issues around the paternal side. 2 again is the number of the Moon, balance, contrast and opposites. Doing best for your soul. The white horse dominant in this painting is taken directly from one of my first drawings I did as a child kept by my father. It resonates with the notion of Pallas. Pallas is often depicted in art with an owl linking to her special visual perception, the horses' eye is my owl. The background features objects from the Nevada desert ranch - spinning and weaving, needlework and visual art traits are credited to Pallas much like my own.
Hebes is the Goddess of Eternal Youth, her cup overflows. Hebes represents the desire we all have to hold onto our youth. The cup is filled with delicate blossoms, when cut fade fast but are preserved by Hebes' magical cup. The number 6 - the number for Venus meaning harmony, balance, sincerity, love and truth. The use of graffiti spray in this painting links to our ancient urge in our cities to make marks of power on our walls. Graffiti artists mark out territories with their signs of identity. Feeling the need of protection in an uncertain world.
Ceres(Roman) is the Goddess of Agriculture. The dried heads of the hydrangeas remind me of dry fields of corn and the feeling of the harvest. Ceres is about fertility and feminine 'earthy' creative expression, but also about how mothers are protective of daughters, yet have to let them make their own experiences. 33 + 99 distills to the number 6. 6 is the number for Venus who represents harmony, balance, sincerity, love and truth and the ability for forgiveness and compassion when needed. SOLD.
The ground in this painting is metallic like the surface of the planet Mercury appears. Mercury is know as an ambiguous planet, neither male or female. Number 4 is Mercury's number. (4 is the number of my family home) Out of coincidence Mercury also links to the home, signifying getting back to your roots, grounding and centring yourself. Offering stability, solidarity and endurance, the calmness of home. SOLD.
Vesta is the Goddess of the hearth, the home and the family. She guards the hearth fire in the temple in the Roman religion. Devoted to keeping the eternal flame alive. She symbolises an inner sense of duty and devotion to a certain task, inwardly directed ability to focus, a mediative single-minded vision of contemplation. The peony flowers represent female, and myself and my sense of duty and attempts to bring beauty and fulfilment to the lives of those close to me. 100 distills to the number 1 (1+0+0) This number symbolises the Sun. Which in turn represents positivity, pure energy, new beginnings and acting on ambition.
Juno was the Wife of Zeus(Greek)/ Jupiter (Roman), who kept her unfaithful, freedom loving husband back from his escapades to matrimonial duties. Juno represents as the Goddess of Marriage. The female influence on life. 29 distills to the number 11 (2+9=11). The No. 11 is the Master number of the Universe! The attributes of 1 (the Sun) are doubled. Linking to higher ideals, invention, refinement, balance, fulfilment and vision. 11 is both male and female. The Sun and the Moon, holding them in perfect separateness - in perfect balance.
A recent trip to Paris. Imagery comes from the hidden parts of the Louvre, honesty of the every day symbolised by the Honesty plant. At the same time a poster exhibition by Toulouse Lautrec and others is shown at The Musée des Arts de la Mode et du Textile - graphic shapes and striking colours and confident marks say much about this city. My marks come from Pere Lachaise, writings on gravestones.
A recent trip to Paris. Imagery comes from the hidden parts of the Louvre, the servants quarters and the everyday and primitive against the grand are very striking to me. At the same time a poster exhibition by Toulouse Lautrec and others is shown at The Musée des Arts de la Mode et du Textile - graphic shapes and striking colours and confident marks say much about this city. SOLD.
Paris 2009..a pilgrimage to Cemetery Pere Lachaise - one of my favourite places to gain inspiration. The Cemetery is full of wonderful stonework, iornwork and momento mori. The antique patina and colour is beautiful and silently echos those by gone lives sensitively and quietly. The inserts in the wall are each unique in colour, again defined spaces by human mark making.
Paris 2009..a pilgrimage to Cemetery Pere Lachaise - one of my favourite places to gain inspiration. The Cemetery is full of wonderful stonework, iornwork and momento mori. The antique patina and colour is beautiful and silently echos those by gone lives sensitively and quietly. The inserts in the wall are each unique in colour, again defined spaces by human mark making. Du Ciel translates to The Heavenly Sky, a beautiful concept within the otherwise morbid time of death.
Mixed media on paper. 30.5 cm x 40 cm. I revel in finding writings and marks on surfaces within towns and villages, the human interaction and the lack of being precious..a fleeting glimpse into someones daily life. The numbers mean nothing to us but are an important part of life's jigsaw to someone else. This doorway in Teguise, Lanzarote..the label is from a antique bottle containing a liquid used in wine production in a local vineyard. SOLD.
Paris 2009..a pilgrimage to Cemetery Pere Lachaise - one of my favourite places to gain inspiration. The Cemetery is full of wonderful stonework, iornwork and momento mori. The antique patina and colour is beautiful and silently echos those by gone lives sensitively and quietly. SOLD.
The egg is a perfect shape, archaic fragile yet strong enough to survive the passage of time. It’s geometry, seemingly born from a supreme being, is the common denominator between species. For all living beings, the egg is defined as a formal universal symbol of life. This painting takes place in my studio, it is a still life featuring my painting desk and objects in my studio. The objects are placed where they wouldn’t normally be. For me it is about the uncertainty of life. “I’m so happy cause today I found my friends, they’re in my head…” Kurt Cobain.
The egg is a perfect shape, archaic fragile yet strong enough to survive the passage of time. It’s geometry, seemingly born from a supreme being, is the common denominator between species. For all living beings, the egg is defined as a formal universal symbol of life. This painting takes place in my studio, it is a still life featuring my painting desk and objects in my studio. The objects are placed where they wouldn’t normally be. For me it is about the uncertainty of life. “I’m so happy cause today I found my friends, they’re in my head…” Kurt Cobain.
In the vineyard region La Geria, a rustic restaurant once a winery itself producing Fino Sherry from the Malvasia grape. Monolithic barrels remain scented with memory.
In the vineyard region La Geria, a rustic restaurant once a winery itself producing Fino Sherry from the Malvasia grape. Monolithic barrels remain scented with memory.
Giant lobster pots discarded in the hot sun in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote - like giant birdcages for the birds (or the mermaids) of the sea! Mystical and monolythic size waiting to be dunked back into the ocean. Sardino the name of a nearby tiny boat awaiting the power of the ocean. SOLD.
Huge lobster pots 3mtrs wide discarded rusting on black hot bed lava rocks at the sea edge in Playa Blanca near the fishermen's boatyard. Their tangled mesh reminds me of a giant birdcage.
Summer in Lanzarote. Heat baked bleached colour. The sense of the island. Sea battered lobster pots and railings strewn with fishermen's wire at the port of Playa Blanca in the boatyard. SOLD.
Iron turning textured and rusty by the violent atlantic ocean and the parching sun - this bin at the 'Boiling Pots' on the South of Lanzarote is battered until it becomes objet d'art - volcanic lava spills into the sea and waves crash and ebb. SOLD.
Florence Series. Whilst on involved in Florence Biennale Exhibition I gain inspiration from the city. Fresco covered walls of Florence, the chapel of San Marco. Intricate stone work and washes of colour, chalked marks for human direction.
The family together. A sense of home, yet a place where everyone is free...
Right side of the Birdcage Duo. I own a little wooden birdcage, on a positive day of creativity and vitality the door is open, some times it closes on its own and it seems to be a bad omen! But currently, it remains open. The little bird is free to fly away and do as it wishes - as free as a bird in the clouds, uncaged but protected. SOLD.
Left side of the Birdcage Duo. I own a little wooden birdcage, on a positive day of creativity and vitality the door is open, some times it closes on its own and it seems to be a bad omen! But currently, it remains open. Outside the garden is seeding, little Christmas Rose plants are about to burst open, a feeling of freedom and release. SOLD.
Tavira, Portugal. Bleak mid-winter. Typical moorish tiles cover the buildings eroded by floods from the rising tiles. Locals potter about wrapped up warm in these quiet times, little church surrounded by solitary trees bare but for closed seed pods. The city is hibernating. SOLD.
Tavira, Portugal. Bleak mid-winter. Typical moorish tiles cover the buildings eroded by floods from the rising tiles. Locals potter about wrapped up warm in these quiet times, daily life is simple..the basket banal waiting for life to pick up again and gain its bounty of fresh vegetables from the vibrant summer markets. SOLD.
Moonlit gourds, erie in their colour and form. The simplicity of observation. Pleasure of composition and still life. Autumn 2009.
Mixed media on canvas. 87.5cm x 87.5cm. Graphic shapes of unusual object at one of Lanzarote's original vineyards El Grifo. The antique pots used in wine production are like very modern sculptures..or strange arte povera animals. Bright light and white washed walls give the impression they are placed in a bright gallery space..yet they are simply cast aside.
Mixed media on textured copper panel. 89 cm x 89 cm. This writing on the floor outside a home in Teguise, Lanzarote, welcomes you to a wonderland of strange sculptures and found objects, other peoples junk all exploding across the garden and every possible surface of the house. Mi Paraiso means My Paradise in spanish. Lanzarote has the most incredible energies, possibly through its volcanic seismic activity. I have always found it to be a place of great inspiration..where even the simple shapes of a cactus prickily pear plant are magestic..a statement of the earth.
Mixed media on paper. 32 cm x 42 cm. Years ago my family and I discovered a ruin of a house in the vineyard region of la Geria. The house had a great ancient olive tree growing through the middle of it, returning it to the ground, at the back there was a natural well, very unusually for the dry baren area. We dreamed of one day restoring the building, dreaming of a life making wine..last year when I visited I had the most delicious malvasia seco white wine in a restaurant, from a new vineyard..so the following day we went searching for it. Only to discover the most amazing, dynamic transformation of the little house! This is my ode to vineyard Stratvs, its modern simplicity and tradition in the form of one of a wine barrel. SOLD
Mixed media on textured copper panel. 89 cm x 89 cm. This writing on the floor outside a home in Teguise, Lanzarote, welcomes you to a wonderland of strange sculptures and found objects, other peoples junk all exploding across the garden and every possible surface of the house. Mi Paraiso means My Paradise in spanish. Lanzarote has the most incredible energies, possibly through its volcanic seismic activity. I have always found it to be a place of great inspiration..where even the simple shapes of a cactus prickily pear plant are magestic..a statement of the earth. SOLD.
Mixed media on paper. 81.5cm x 54cm. Calle Duende translates Magic Street. The doorway is typical of Lanzarote and their use of green and turquoise paint, this bold colour used slap dash with no question of its dominance in every day life. I like the boldness of it, linking to the spanish firey nature. I didn't know what Calle Duende translated too..it came to me as if by magic..cause this is my magic place.
Mixed media and monoprint on paper. 48cm x 72cm. Perla Del Atlantico logo emblazons the side of a little whitewashed restaurant, surrounding it dilapidated scenery. The atlantic ocean batters the volcanic black rocks and a solitary wire fence seems to protect the little village from falling into the sea. In the summer the fishermen hang bream out to dry on wire like washing lines.
Mixed media and monoprint on paper. 74cm x 84cm. An old lady drinks tea in a darkened room in an old building by the ocean, the hot salty air wafting through the open doorway. The fence outside and bundles of wire create a tensile still strength protecting her from the churning sea against the black rock as she stares at the wall in silent contemplation. Find this work at Chris Holmes Decorative Interiors, Harrogate.
Mixed media on paper. 30cm x 46.5cm. Little boats outside the little fish restaurant we ate in. The bold hand painted graphic text adorns the side of the whitewashed building. The text of the restaurants grand in such a small simple place, but reflect how proud they are of their way of life and the bounty they have gleaned from the ocean. They text becomes a celebration of this.
Mixed media on paper. 30cm x 46.5cm. Watching the fishermen in Orla. The landing home, a familiar space.
Fissures cross the lava flow which tumbles into the churning ocean, waves suck back and explode over and into the land..the land roars as water coarses through underground tunnels and air blasts through even the smallest crevice. SOLD.
Dappled eucalyptus outlines cast over garage doorway in Faro, Portugal. SOLD.
Dappled shadows of eucalyptus, representing healing and protection across a bleached white chapel wall in Majorca. SOLD.
Winter 2008-09 in Tavira, Portugal. The small town is filled with beautiful aged doorways, each one different surrounded by worn traditional tiles. Here the jasmine has faded and died, its blossoms scattered on the floor. It is cold and bleak, time to sit in a cafe with a warm milky drink. The vibrancy of the tiny gourd and the yellow of the napkins. SOLD.
What lies behind the doorway? Set in Tavira, Portugal....A window is open between the room and the Universe. The curtain is window dressing, and the windows dress. Swaying in the half-light of the Summer room, the curtain at the window turns sunlight into shade. Hot outside, cool in: the fabric ripples with light and air...View on Colour.
The juicy yield of Seville oranges beneath the window. Colour based around Piero della Francesca's Madonna del Parto. The walls are gold and precious as an altar, the blue of the simple tiles deep and rich as lapis lazuli. Connecting with the religious symbolism of Italian art, remembering my visit to Tuscany and beauty of simplicity. SOLD.
Jaipur, Rajasthans capital city, painted in the vibrant ressonant blue of the god of love Krishna. Winding streets and pathways mirroring the pathways of the stars seen in the famous observatory. A magical city of layers of history. SOLD.
This little fabric label is nailed to the size of a cheese block finca in lanzarote as if protecting the little house. The dappled eucalyptus branches also represent healing and protection. I later discover Mini Estadi is a spanish football division! SOLD - COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
Streets of Majorca, hidden doorways and jumbled perspective reminiscent of Renaissance painters-the gold and earth pigments mirror the altar piece paintings which were much revered. SOLD.
Still collecting fascinating objects I come across an ancient flakey organ pipe with traces of gold fleur de lys on its metal. My initial connection with the religious connotations takes me back to Versaille and its chapel and my study of hidden graffiti on the stone walls. The honesty seed heads seem rather appropirate as I collect them this winter... SOLD.
I hand-dyed some linen the most spirit lifting colour of magenta. The fabric was drying in the sunshine outside on the washing line and it reminded me of the vibrancy of India and Morocco, the dyeing industries, the bustling markets, piles of spices, dried fruit and fresh fruits...I gathered together some fresh juicy oranges in an antique Indian painted box and the composition came together instantly to remind of those tangible glimpses of memory. SOLD.
Roadside shrine on Formentor, Majorca..the sea glimmers in the background.
Shrine at Formentor, Majorca. Dramatic mountain vista in ground..a feeling of solitude.
A hidden crockery cupboard at the National Trust Property Erddig near Wrexham, North Wales. A beam of light illuminates ornate yet faded plates...past treasures, conserved history.
Doorway in Athens Plaka.
Doorway in Athens Plaka. From the Acropolis I could see this massive fabric sign covering a building, the text is taken from this. SOLD.
Beauty in stillness and space - of quiet detail and form. ARTIST'S PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Piere Lachaise series. Here floral vanitas lie in juxtaposition as a beautiful object to be enjoyed alongside the reminder of death. NOT FOR SALE - ARTISTS PRIVATE COLLECTION. COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
A solitary redundant lighthouse at the southern point of Lanzarote near Playa Blanca - it captures the essence of the resort before developers came and imposed their glamourous buildings and building sites – once a quiet fishing village. The lighthouse remains untouched, the graffiti on the walls is scratched, not sprayed - those who have found this sacred place. SOLD - COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
Shape of natural hide dictating form and composition and subject matter. Tactile, designed to be worn as body piece, but beautiful form recalling the landscape when flat.
Arches of the lighthouse in lanzarote. Baked chalky walls, bleached and overwashed surfaces though pounding explosions of sea spray and sunshine. Silence and heat surrounded by boiling turquoise water. Symbolic florals - the olive branch=peace; the palm leaves=Christ; Eucalyptus shadows=personal memory representing overcoming challenge. SOLD - COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
Image born from inspiration from colours from the Sevres factory in France. Archive colour and modern composition. SOLD - COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
Ripe figs delicate to touch, with waxy redcurrant berries new seasons produce, tempting and luscious, renaissance fruit! SOLD.
Here in the latest of my works I research the oil painting techniques of the old masters - still using an interesting use of negative space I am concerned with tension between the objects and light and dark rather than line. Every brush stroke being a positive gesture. SOLD. COMMISSIONS WELCOME.
Dark doorway in Cemetery Piere Lachaise, Paris. The cool yellow stone against the heaviness of the iron doorway. Delicate and monolithic. SKETCHPAD - NOT FOR SALE.
Original sketch of doorway to crypt in Piere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. Delicate colours and textures. A feel of peace and balance. SKETCHPAD - NOT FOR SALE. HAVE LARGE FELT WORK FOR SALE.
Haiku poetry equals the element of Zen, referenced with the notion of capturing the point of rest. Chaos and chance existing in every subject, in every moment, in organic growth.
Delicate study for summer/autumn. Flushed ripe fruit with contemporary vessels in dappled sunlight. SOLD.
Undulations and crevices of roses form planes and valleys of a mountainous landscape, leather hide dictating form and composition. To be worn around the body, taking on the bodies form in addition
A bleak windy winters day - cow parsley dried and twiggy covered in puffs of snow. Capturing the feel of the moment in immediate monoprint. SOLD - Viewing available.
The day warms and colour begins to be exposed through patches in the snow - an amber sky reflected on the damp undergrowth. SOLD - VIEWING AVAILABLE.
A symbolic painting for me - I found this red eucalyptus frond the day I had my interview at the RCA, London (I was accepted!) The eucalyptus historically represents healing and protection, so I really felt like someone was watching over me that day. The ground connects to a recent trip to Paris, I became obsessed with damask wallcoverings and Trompe L'oeil. SOLD.
A stormy cloudy day at Devils Kitchen, Snowdonia. The air is smoky and damp, the rocks completely blackened with rain. Large work on canvas.
A winters day near the Horseshoe Pass in wales, crisp freezing bleak snow covered hills and blades of long straw like grasses shiver in the winds. SOLD.
At the top of a Black Run at Courchevel 1850 in January 2004 - smooth steep ski slopes give way to a dramatic landscape of the volcanic glacier Mont Blanc mountain range in the distance. The painting concentrates on the colour and texture contrasts within the landscape, semi-abstract in form, an impression of sensations - the feel and texture; the awe inspiring view and the dramatic dark weather closing in with the arrival of the next snow storm.
Devil's Kitchen snowdonia. I wanted to paint an dominant dramatic painting. This is almost 2 m high and wants to fill a room as the water was filling the pools in the mountain. ARTISTS PRIVATE COLLECTION - FOR SALE.
Horseshoe Pass in midwinter, new years day. Deep burgundy ferns and heather peak through the layers of snow. Cool and still, only the sky hints at warmth as it turns peach and lavender as the sun sets - promises of a crisp day ahead.
New Years day at the Horseshoe Pass summit, North Wales. Deep snow - heather shows through as rich red contouring the land. The light begins to go as the sun sets - the colour of the sky a slate blue with amber streaks. Multimedia watercolour base painting. SOLD.
Large canvas painting - heavy weather over Llanberis Pass, Snowdonia - light is rising through the valley of the mountains - I express the mood with materials with substance: sawdust; marble dust; wax. These materials are physical as is the scene. ARTISTS PRIVATE COLLECTION.
The haiku poetry equals the element of Zen, referenced with the notion of capturing the point of rest. Through abstraction I try to capture the ‘quality’ of the seascape - the ultimate product of the individuals’ unrepeatable and unique experience. SOLD.
Bringing painting back to the bare essentials - the monoprint - slight gestures and objects combine to sum up in the simplest image the combined haiku poetry. The notion of capturing a single moment. SOLD.
Essence of the land - physical materials in simple painting - wax, sawdust and varnish. Dramatic gestures. The experience of building a circular sculpture in a circular clearing in Delamere forest - land art and art of the land. NOT FOR SALE - ARTISTS PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Huge slabs of slate – their forms echoing the landscape they came from. Dense, solid and volcanic.
Part of Boat Series sketchpad. Daily ritualistic study of the bottoms of 40 boats propped up along shore line at Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales. Oil painting. Sketchpad - NOT FOR SALE, COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
Part of Boat Series sketchpad. Daily ritualistic study of the bottoms of 40 boats propped up along shore line at Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales. Sketchpad - NOT FOR SALE, COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE.
Bubble the Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen as a young dog. She is making her own space within this antique indian cradle once holding a baby. This painting with the Royal Academy Summer Show "Making Space" concept in mind, rather than a private commission. The work is about Bubble's gaze, her feeling of self and contemplation.
Commissioned Dog portrait. Frayda is a Nova Scotia Retriever, a light inquisitive disposition she enjoys nothing more than exploring her surroundings and escaping to the wilderness! Her owners love landscape and the outdoors themselves, views and vistas so here she is pictured in the closest natural environment to her home - Wandsworth Common in London at the waters edge it is Winter and the oak leaves have dried to a rusty brown which echos in her fox like coat, her bushy tail hides within the leaves...SOLD
Commissioned dog painting of Jack Russell Beti. Works revolve around owners lives and homes. My client lived near Rhuthin, Wales in an Old Vicarage so an atmospheric window within the home and the rolling hills were important to the work and to place the dog in her environment. COMMISSIONED DOG PAINTING - SOLD.
Commissioned dog painting of Scotties Thelma and Louise, almost twin dogs, but completely different personalities! The owners house is full of light, windows and doorways. There is a sense of time past, levels of psychic connections to those who have passed away. Objects with this connection to members of her family feature in the ground. Signatures of his favourite cricket team in the background. COMMISSIONED DOG PAINTING - SOLD.
Tiggy the Airdale. Famous at Sandra Harris, Chester. 61 Watergate Row South, Watergate St, CH1 2LE. Please visit if you wish to see the quality of the work with view to commission! COMMISSIONED DOG PAINTING - SOLD.