Painting and Drawing
Prepared to undertake commissions
Art Education
1978 - 1979 Portsmouth College of Art Foundation Course
1979 - 1982 Birmingham Polytechnic BA (Hons) in Fine Art
Teaching
1989 Visiting Lecturer, Norwich School of Art
Solo Exhibitions
1992 The Bond Gallery, Birmingham
1993 The Gallery at John Jones, Finsbury Park, London
2001 Horton Estate Exhibition, Colmore Row, Birmingham
Mixed Exhibitions
1988 Portrait Award Exhibition, The National Portrait Gallery,
London
1990 Birmingham Art Trust, Gas Hall Exhibition
1990 Portrait Award Exhibition, The National Portrait Gallery,
London
1991 Portrait Award Exhibition, The National Portrait Gallery,
London
1992 The Laing Art Competition Exhibition, R.B.S.A., Birmingham
1992 Portrait Award Exhibition, The National Portrait Gallery,
London
1992 Christmas Exhibition, Midlands Contemporary Art, Birmingham
1993 Christmas Exhibition, Coram Gallery, Bloomsbury, London
1994 A Return to Beauty, Roy Miles Gallery, Mayfair, London
1995 The Hunting Art Competition Exhibition, The R.C.A., London
1997 The Laing Art Competition Exhibition, The Bond Gallery, Birmingham
1997 BP Portrait Award Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London
1999 Six Chapel Row Gallery, Bath
2001 The Hunting Art Prizes, Royal College of Art, London
Awards
1988 National Portrait Gallery Portrait Award, Special
Commendation
1997 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, Commendation
2001 The Hunting Art Prizes Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London
Catalogues
1993 Exhibition at John Jones. Two reproductions and a short
essay by Tessa Sidey (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery)
2001 The Hunting Art Prizes Exhibition, London
Reviews
1988 Brian Sewell, London Evening Standard
1988 The Sunday Times
Work in Collections
1989 Leicestershire Collection for Schools
1992 St. Pauls Cathedral, Portrait of Frank Atkinson
1993 Causeway Capital Ltd.
1993 65 Fleet Street
1994 Mr and Mrs Nicholas Watkins
1996 The Diocese of Birmingham
1996 King Edward VI School for Girls, Edgbaston
1999 The May Family Portrait
Personal Profile
I was born in Fareham, Hampshire and brought up in the small
village of Titchfield. Studying Fine Art at Birmingham Polytechnic
brought a change of locality that contrasted the rural with the
legacy of Victorian industry and modern urbanity. After graduating
with a degree in Fine Art, I continued to paint in my flat in
Edgbaston. The first work I completed was a series of paintings
with historical reference and style for Ettington Park Hotel.
This provided an opportunity to learn traditional techniques and
their application.
I then spent some time studying Music to broaden my understanding
of the Arts, gaining experience from playing with the Serenata
Guitar Quartet.
My paintings continued with portraits of friends and family that
resulted in my first inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery
portrait award with an ambitious double portrait reflecting on
urban life and cultural tradition.
In 1988, my move to Smethwick in the black country area of the
West Midlands brought a change of focus to the work. Smethwick
contains one of the most significant areas of canal and industrial
heritage and my frequent walks along the canals soon stimulated
an interest in painting this subject matter.
I found an objective interest in the historical aspect of the
canals with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the way
this shaped the development of the area, from the James Watt steam
engine to the motorway network.
There is also a subjective interest in the personal symbolic meaning
this landscape has had for me in the way that the towpath can
be held as a metaphor for the journey both physical and spiritual.
Laden with the sense of the passage of time, nature reaffirms
and counterbalances a feeling of loss with growth. Also, the contemplative
serene quality of the canals allows time to focus on the pure
formal qualities of the contrast of texture and material substance,
such as water against brick, concrete against leaf.
Much of my working time is divided between working outside on
drawings and small oil studies and the larger studio based paintings.
The former provides the direct contact with the subject, the gathering
of information, from which the larger paintings are developed
in the studio with its greater opportunity for reflection.
My first one-man exhibition at the Bond Gallery in Birmingham
gave the opportunity to show the recent canal paintings in the
fitting surroundings of a converted warehouse, alongside some
of the portraits that had been exhibited at the National Portrait
Gallery. Also at this time, as a result of exhibiting at the N.P.G.,
I was commissioned to paint a portrait of Frank Atkinson, former
librarian of St. Pauls Cathedral, to hang in the library at St.
Pauls. The following year culminated with an exhibition at the
John Jones Gallery that focused entirely on the urban landscape.
At present, I am continuing with both commissioned portraits (I
have recently completed portraits of the Bishop of Birmingham,
of Miss. E. Evans, Headmistress, King Edward VI School for Girls, Edgbaston
and of The May Family with paintings and drawings of the industrial landscape and the natural landscape some of which
were in my Horton Estate Exhibition. My most recent landscapes have been set in rural Shropshire.
