Well this is a first for me – I have work currently on show in three different parts of the country…
Time around trees is showing at Edinburgh’s St Margaret’s House. I have my studio on the top floor of this wonderfully creative, yet admittedly ugly building and I’ll be taking over Gallery 2 between 6th and 22nd March to show a selection of my work and that of friends Eoin Cox and Catherine Lilley. Don’t be put off by its exterior though – if you are in the Edinburgh area it’s well worth visiting its three galleries, the busy workshop spaces and creative businesses. There are also regular Open Studio events if you want to see what goes on behind all those doors.
The Harley Gallery Open Exhibition is a biennial open submission exhibition in the beautifully refurbished Harley Gallery on the Welbeck Estate, Nottinghamshire. It’s the second time my work has been selected for the show and it was great to be able to attend the opening this year, which coincided with a trip south to work on the Tree Stories project. The standard of works was very high and I was pleased to see that the judges had chosen quite a few drawings, my favourite being Barbara Clayton’s Flow II. You can see the prize-winners here and the show runs until 12th April.
The farm shop is also pretty impressive, with the best cheese and onion pasties a hungry vegetarian artist could wish for.
This is one of three specially created drawings for React-Reflect-Respond, showing now at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, which accompanies a touring exhibition celebrating the work of Tim Stead, in particular his sculpture.
All of my work relates to the themes of trees, woodland, natural forms and the dialogue between man and nature, exploring the vitality and complexity of tree forms made in response to their environment. The new works for this exhibition are specifically inspired by Tim Stead’s love for, and celebration of, the wayward nature of wood. I fell in love with his furniture in Cafe Gandolfi when I first came to Scotland in the mid 1990s, in particular the way he combined powerful design with great sensitivity towards the natural beauty of the wood.
Tim Stead said that a man can make an input which reveals nature in an altered beauty; my input as a visual artist consists of searching out the striking and sculptural aspects of living trees and creating images which try to capture the sense of movement in their static forms.
React-Reflect-Respond continues at Perth Museum and Art Gallery until 6th May.
There’s more about all my exhibitions, past, present and future here and you can also get regular news by liking my facebook page.