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me and my work
 The
paintings and drawings here have
been made over the past 20 years.
The shop window
paintings
were
started while a
student at Camberwell School of Art. While dodging
around to catch a glimpse of my own reflection in a shop window on
Peckham Rye, other images caught my eye. Drawings were made and
photographs taken and a new inspiration and thought train began. I
continued painting these after leaving college. It is a subject that I
feel is still unresolved and that continues to influence my work.Trying
to move away from the subject I
attended life drawing classes at Saint Martins College of art. Drawing
has always been an important aspect of creating. I eventually returned
to the shop window subject as it was still a source of inspiration and
its possibilities not exhausted. Such a versatile
subject matter, with
literally many planes and surfaces. Patterns, shapes
and curious
distortion held my interest. The endless source material which changed
continually as do the hundreds of shoppers passing by the stiff staring
mannequins. As they present fashion, material life, the protective
glass panes reflect the busy world outside and form strange complex
patterns. Travelling
around India and South East
Asia in 1984 gave rise to a different subject matter. I was inspired
and fascinated by the religions, the poverty, the people and the beauty
of the land. Returning to Britain in the middle of the miners strike
and demonstrations concerning the anti apartheid movement gave me other
subjects to paint, preserving an important time that had
a great effect
on me and others. I was able to exhibit pictures in forums such as the
Lewisham Arts Festival and as part of a
group of artists with studios
in a derelict school building in Catford, called New
Moon Studios. We
moved to Burnley in 1995 and I
retrained as a Primary School teacher, as this had always been of
interest and gave a source of income. Since this time I have made many
drawings, mainly of walking experiences in Scotland, and carefully kept
in sketch books, ready maybe to be used for paintings. |
Through this time I taught drawing and painting, worked
as a ceramics
technician, had two children, and continued to teach in art.