For as long as I can remember, the planet on which we live has been a source of wonder and fascination to me.

Painting its scenic beauty for 25 years has been a delight. However, the will to advance my creativity by looking more closely at the natural environment, its dynamic forces and unpredictability, saw me return to education to widen my approach.

In 2019 I achieved my Masters Degree in Fine Art Contemporary Dialogues (distinction), from University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea School of Art. This inspired, as I hoped it would, deeper exploration of these compelling subjects in a multitude of fresh ways. Using innovation, philosophy and an array of exciting materials in addition to paint, I have relinquished control, embraced new ways of looking and developed thought beyond representation. From ice-age geology on nearby Gower to vulnerable frozen habitats around the globe, I have awakened to the invisible within the visual.

an icy grip…

Participation in Polar expeditions over the years has strengthened my affinity for ice and a deep appreciation of the frozen world. This, combined with my keenness for materiality and process, sees my evolving work positioned where art meets science to reflect both the chaos of nature and man’s chaotic impact upon it. In seeking to develop a new visual vocabulary appropriate for the environmental conditions of today, I look to the sublime, ferocious and resilient natural world and the destructive legacy of industrialisation for creative scope.

Bringing together culturally discrete materials which react, stain, engage and reject provides atypical outcomes which I find hugely exciting. It reinforces the belief that transmutation from one state to another does not extinguish but simply alters the state of being. This conviction is pivotal as my work fundamentally explores the concept of absence and presence; particularly in respect of the need for greater recognition that human beings are a part of the world not apart from it.