In 2020 I retired after a forty year career working as a Landscape Architect in the UK, Cyprus and the Middle East designing and creating gardens, parks and recreational facilities for all manner of clients.
In 2023 I moved to Cardigan on the bank of the River Teifi, close to the sea in West Wales on the border between Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. I love living here; the town, the river, the incredible coastline, the down-to-earth friendly people and their proud and widely celebrated culture.
Now my imagination, creativity and artwork follows a much freer direction. I find this fortunate luxury both daunting and liberating. I can (and am lucky to be able to) create images of whatever inspires me, and in the time and way of my choice. I paint outside from life and in my home studio where sketches and ideas are developed and completed.
My artwork forms a kind of visual diary of whatever interests, intrigues and moves me. Apart from my architectural education, which is sometimes apparent in my work, I am largely self-taught. I have enjoyed experimenting with various mediums but acrylic paint is my main love because of its depth of colour and versatility. I like to let paint colours sweep into each other, to create a sensual quality, to blend wet paint with wet paint directly on the canvas, so colours slip and slide like melting ice cream.
I am inspired by the natural beauty of the Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire landscapes and built environment. I am constantly drawn to the sea, which has been such a huge influence on my life and work. I strive to capture the atmosphere and essence of place and people. However, I also want to celebrate the human, the marks people make on these places, to treasure the local, the small-scale, the eccentric, the ordinary: whatever is made out of necessity and caring.
For me capturing the light is everything. This could be low sunlight illuminating the coastline or the heart-warming illumination from inside a busy lifeboat station, or the dazzling light radiating from the interior of a cafe onto the dark street outside. The elusive quality of light can transform a figure or a landscape or the fabric of a building in just a matter of seconds. I strive to convey that immediate moment in time, space and sense of place by capturing its fleeting magic.
I hope you enjoy some of my artwork, shared across the pages of this website.
