No 3 Reflections

My first inspirational Art Teacher was David Wood at Allerton Grange School in Leeds in 1967 followed by Foundation at Bradford under the rule of the dynamic Roddy Carmicheal, and the “Scotish Mafia”. Pete Stitt a member of the clan, “a Feisty Celt” took me to Exeter. There, Mike Garton taught me something about colour because his influences are on my paint palette. Painting, didn’t develop at Exeter “Light and Sound” with Mike Bartlett did, but it was Leslie Kerman’s skilful guidance through my final year that counted for my degree. Teacher training followed with Pete Thursby and Graham Rich at Exeter College, ensuring my teaching career had a great foundation and influences still 38 years later.

 

​I paint in any medium oils and watercolours, dabble in print-making and wax resist, love to draw. Current work is about surfaces and textures and can range from architecture or individual bricks, to water and rock. My mixed media watercolours are like stains on the walls, the effects of time whether man-made or natural. The wilderness of Dartmoor or the streets of Plymouth that are being shaped and changed by social and economic forces as well as natural ones, I record while walking the moors or exploring the suburbs, the regeneration and decay, the old and the new, the fabric of a place is a tactile motivator.

 

These ideas have been evolving regards landscape, architecture, people and culture for many years. Whether observing the local SW Peninsula or travelling in Europe, it is the historic, geographic and economic, world that I try and capture.

Acrylic on Canvas

65x76cm