TREE AND HEDGEROW SERIES
Hedges are vitally important to wildlife, and I have attempted to show the interwoven connections between the two by using intricate patterns, mainly Celtic in origin.
The Tree Paintings were influenced by illustrations in Natural History books, where wildlife images, such as birds, have been removed from their landscape, and are then shown as informative representations of life in that landscape.
The Country Park trees were taken from tea cards, solitary symbols of a once abundant woodland.
The Military History paintings; Nautilus, Slighest Difference and the Messenger, were all based on a brilliant enthusiast's museum in Newcastle. Now gone , it was filled with purloined cases and shop mannikins, displaying WW Two uniforms. The figures had a sense of suspended melancholia. I wanted to place them in new settings and combine them with wildlife imagery.
So a Sailor confined below deck dreams of whales and seabirds, a Wren (Women's Navy Service) exchanges a peacetime knowledge of birds, for military aircraft identification, and a Radio Opeator is picking up signals from a dark underworld.
The Natural History paintings were influenced by museum cases, where preserved exhibits are presented in front of painted backdrops depicting their former natural environments
Profile Paintings.
The profile of the woman came from the TV, profiles have simple symbolic qualities such as coins and hieroglyphs, somehow she dominates the other two panels, they seem to represent her thoughts. The Profile series started out as a purely decorative venture, but then the themes of day and night and wildlife emerged.
The Target Paintings combine fairground and World War Two imagery, showing two different aspects of firing a gun. I intended to create ambiguity between who or what is the quarry and the hunter.
The Man for All Seasons paintings show how something as beautiful as camoflague in nature, can be used by the ruthless mind of the war machine. As mammals and birds can change colour with the seasons, so can the soldier.
TREE AND HEDGEROW SERIES
Hedges are vitally important to wildlife, and I have attempted to show the interwoven connections between the two by using intricate patterns, mainly Celtic in origin.
The Tree Paintings were influenced by illustrations in Natural History books, where wildlife images, such as birds, have been removed from their landscape, and are then shown as informative representations of life in that landscape.
The Country Park trees were taken from tea cards, solitary symbols of a once abundant woodland.
The Military History paintings; Nautilus, Slighest Difference and the Messenger, were all based on a brilliant enthusiast's museum in Newcastle. Now gone , it was filled with purloined cases and shop mannikins, displaying WW Two uniforms. The figures had a sense of suspended melancholia. I wanted to place them in new settings and combine them with wildlife imagery.
So a Sailor confined below deck dreams of whales and seabirds, a Wren (Women's Navy Service) exchanges a peacetime knowledge of birds, for military aircraft identification, and a Radio Opeator is picking up signals from a dark underworld.
The Natural History paintings were influenced by museum cases, where preserved exhibits are presented in front of painted backdrops depicting their former natural environments
Profile Paintings.
The profile of the woman came from the TV, profiles have simple symbolic qualities such as coins and hieroglyphs, somehow she dominates the other two panels, they seem to represent her thoughts. The Profile series started out as a purely decorative venture, but then the themes of day and night and wildlife emerged.