Just For A Moment....

'Driver's Story', currently on show in 'Habitat', a mixed group exhibition at Cupola Contemporary Art, Sheffield

I’ve had several busy weeks where the year now seems to be gathering some sort of momentum. 

Last week I delivered 2 paintings, ‘Driver’s Story’ and ‘A Home in England’ to Sheffield’s Cupola Contemporary Art Gallery for a mixed group exhibition, ‘Habitat’. I also was pleased to hear that I had had a painting, ‘Thinking of a Colour’, selected for the Coventry Open 2025 at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. This will be my third exhibition this year already. I’ve also hosted a couple of studio visits recently, where I have invited different artists and artistic contacts round to my studio to discuss my work. That has been enjoyable, and I am really grateful to Sam Weeks artist and John Sewell and Dean Melbourne from Cosimo Art Gallery for giving up their time for me. Listening to their views and insights on my work has felt like a real privilege and it is a very generous act. 

I have often thought ‘Driver’s Story’ is a particularly good painting, if I say so myself(!), but I never feel it has received much interest whenever I have shared it on the usual social channels or for the first time in an exhibition last year, so I’m really pleased to have it selected for the exhibition at Cupola. I think it looks great in some from the exhibition which the gallery sent me. It’s exciting to see it out in the world beyond my studio.

'Plushies', oil on canvas, 85 x 100cms...a new painting that attempts to create a sense of the overwhelming anxiety I often feel as a parent of two......

My studio work, however, seems to be developing more slowly. I am working unusually slowly now and feeling my way painting by painting, not sure what I am going to do from one piece to the next. My interests have widened out from the landscapes, and I am pursuing different strands of work at the same time. These include portraits, landscapes and still lives. One of my pet dogs, Maple, has also found her way into the work too as I slowly develop a series of paintings that turns their attention more to my home life as I reflect on my relationships with the things closer and more personal to me through the paintings

"Maple on the Settee', oil on canvas, 60 x 60cms

I completed a portrait of my son, in a week when he was feeling particularly vulnerable that concerned us all at home. I felt compelled to capture an image of him on my camera phone as I looked in on him as I went to bed, after feeling very moved by the sight of him under the covers watching his TV in bed looking very small and young again (he is now 16). This painting seems to resonate with a lot with those who have seen it, particularly those who are parents.  Dean Melbourne, artist and arts advisor was very moved by it on his studio visit. I also took it to an ‘artwork appraisal’ at the RBSA where it was also received well, and I felt the more nuanced formal decisions I carefully think about were seen by the artists appraising the work that day. Both these experiences have been some sort of validation of this painting, so I think I might try and look for exhibition opportunities to put this piece forward to. 

'Under The Covers', oil on canvas, 60 x 80cms

I find myself on a real journey lately where I feel rather unsure as to where I’m going. Sometimes I feel like I should just determine a more defined and narrower theme for a series of works and go for that, cutting out all these other interests that fight for my attention, you can only do so much after all, and maybe soon I will, but at the moment I’m just trying to go with the flow…

'Highly Commended' at the Coventry Open 2025

After writing this statement above yesterday ( I tend to write the blog posts over a few days),  I reflected that perhaps the paintings about my immediate surroundings at home are the project I’m looking for and I just need to commit to that for a few months. I also attended the private view of the Coventry Open and my painting ‘Thinking of a Colour’ was selected as Highly Commended. I was quite shocked but also taken aback by feeling quite emotional. I persist so hard with my painting and it felt that after what has been a really difficult period in my life my painting felt ‘seen’…I’m not very good at ever celebrating my own work but sometimes, just for a minute, I need to remind myself I maybe should…