The Caledonian Pine or Scots Pine tree seems to symbolise all that is tough and hardy about Scotland. Through it I feel the tug and pull of my DNA, my ancestors voices in the wind, calling. I wrote a poem which became a drawing and then a video. I love the way the artistic process unfolds as you work.
Read More
The outer cloth and silk lining ready to sew a sachet - I dyed these cloths while at Dartington this year.
Weathering the Weather
Much of art research is collecting information or data, then conceptualising how this can be creatively expressed. Collecting data about the weather has become a rich source of inspiration in the Western Highlands for over a hundred years. I’m carrying it forward…
Read More
View of the lower part of Ben Nevis through the rain spattered window
Climbing, not Bagging
Why do people climb mountains? Is it because “they’re there?” In Scotland there is a tradition of ‘bagging a Munro’, climbing one of the mountains over 3,000 feet. My idea of climbing and bagging is a bit different….
Read More
Watching the shore disappear
Ferry Me Away
Bodies of water and their crossing will always fill me with the siren call of adventure. The anticipation of exploration and (self) discovery are strong allures so I headed out to the small island of Lismore on my own kind of pilgrimage.
Read More
Balancing Act (detail) digital collage 2023
Scaffolding the Soul
When creativity is flowing you feel alive and vital. But there are fallow periods in any artist’s life, and that is when you need to nurture yourself and build a scaffolding to support you as you revitalise your artistic practice.
Read More
One of Megan (Margaret) Watts Hughes voice paintings on an A4 size glass plate I photographed on the light box. With thanks to Carfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
A Welsh Treasure
in United Kingdom, Sound
A treasure hunt for sound vibrational art led me to Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery in southern Wales to view the works of Megan (Margaret) Watts Hughes. Her extraordinary pictures were created by singing into paint on a glass plate, revealing what the artist believed was the invisible “voice of God”.
Read More
Bibury camping site in the Cotswolds
On the Road
Sometimes it takes radical trust to believe that things will work out OK. After last minute repairs to the van, we are back on the road travelling through the Cotswolds and encountering more of the Roman history of Britain.
Read More
Feet First Iffley campaign wall.
Documenting Process
It’s so important to document not only your finished work, but also the process of its creation. This means you exhibit your final findings as strong images, yet the process of how you came to make them, your ‘compost’ of ideas and creative process is a valuable part of the work as well and should be valued as such.
Read More
Putting two folded paper sculptures together
Dimensional Thinking
Creating sculptural book structures was a challenge I set myself this weekend. I have been influenced by observing the new and proposed housing developments in the city and how to portray the tension between housing and green spaces.
Read More
Piet Mondrian’s exploration of space and neo-plasticism as a stage set model, Tate Modern.
Art, Space & Time →
in Art, Soul purpose
Art is never created in a vacuum. It is always a product of its time, taking its influences from politics, society and the artist’s experiences of life. Art challenges and disrupts, it expands our thinking as I discovered this week at the Tate Modern in London.
Read More