Artist statement
I have been painting for 12 years, and recently moved up from Sheffield. Working mainly in acrylics with palette knives, I create paintings inspired by the marks we have left on the world, and the untold stories they allude to. Light and depth are important elements of my style, as are the earth colours that dominate my colour palette.
Extended Bio
Self taught, I worked as a community artist in London in the 1980’s but took a 16 year break from painting to bring up my daughter. I paint in acrylic, generally on canvas, and always with palette knives. I delight in the malleability and texture of paint, though where appropriate I also include organic and man-made materials in my works. My work often references the industrial and post-industrial landscape as I explore the human journey, and is an expression of my emotional response to the changing world I see around me.
Exhibiting is a major part of my practice, my shows are thematic and I am fascinated by the idea of the exhibition as an installation of discrete items, and the possibility of using the exhibition to overcome the narrative limitations of painting. I’m also interested in the fit between art and heritage sites, and in 2016 I undertook a residency at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, spending 50 days on site researching and painting in full view of the public, trying show the life of the Hamlet to visitors.
Themed exhibitions have included:
For Those In Peril, – created as an homage to those who participated in the Arctic convoys of 1941-45. The show took the form of an installation of discrete works, including both sculpture and painting, with an ambient audio background evoking the sounds of war and weather, and it was also shown at Kelham Island Industrial Museum.
Succession – Sheffield Gage Gallery 2021 – an exploration of nature in inexorable cycle, slowly scrubbing the marks left behind as new life erupts to supplant the old. Bringing a different focus to the post-industrial landscape. Large and small canvases inspired by the regrowth visible at brownfield sites point both to transience and hubris, amid reminders of the social impact of deindustrialisation.
Exhibitions
• Industrial – Group show (4 artists) November 2012 – Gage gallery Sheffield. 20 paintings in a mixed show featuring paintings and sculptures themed around Industrial production and the ecology.
• We are not in the least afraid of ruins – Solo show focusing on our willingness to destroy in order to create. I took this show touring, replacing sold canvases with new works as necessary. September 2013 Sheffield Gage gallery: March 2014 Northwich ArtWorks Gallery: May 2014 Congleton Electric Picture House.
• Elements of Place – Joint show with Paul Dearden. June 2015 Gage gallery Sheffield. Two artists respond to the landscape. 15 paintings.
• Voices from the wilderness – Joint show with John Ledger. Two artists respond to the social and infrastructural impact of deindustrialisation. September 2015 Gage gallery Sheffield. 15 paintings.
• Fighting For Crumbs (Art in the shadow of neoliberalism) – group show with John Ledger; Rebekah Whitlam; Connor Matheson; Corrine Deakin & Jonathan Butcher. An installation comprised of installations, photography paintings and film. August 2016 Gage gallery. This show was then invited to participate in the World Transformed fringe festival to the Labour Party conference in September 2016 and 11 of my paintings and the video we made as part of the show were displayed at the Black-E in Liverpool.
• Abbeydale Reimaged – An exhibition of 14 paintings created during a 50 day residency at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, a working industrial museum in Sheffield, between April – October 2016. The works are intended to evoke an understanding of what the site, and working at it, was like 120 years ago. On show at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet from October – December 2016.
• For Those In Peril.. – an exhibition of 20 paintings, 3 sculptures and and audio installation. Sheffield Gage Gallery June – July 2017, Sheffield Industrial Museum Feb – April 2018.
• A Sense of ancient stories – A journey through the 58 years of the artists life and into an unresolved future, exploring social and political change and its impact. Sheffield Gage Gallery July 2019
• Material - Landscape is mute, and so the language of shape and energy has to speak for it, imperfectly. One persons symbol of hope is another’s pile of discarded refuse, some see a better world in the relics of the past, whilst others see the appalling social history that they represent. An exploration of this dualism, and my hope is that they encourage the question ‘What matters?’ Sheffield September 2020
• Succession – Sheffield Gage Gallery September 2021, aRtSocial December2021
I have exhibited in Sheffield, Rotherham, Northwich, Congleton, Liverpool and in a number of group shows in London. I’m interested in taking art outside of the gallery, and have completed a number of public commissions in the Kelham Island area, some of which are featured on the ArtUK directory and website.
