the pleasure is to play
queen mary university london, mile end library 3rd-10th june 2026
for many year s i have painted our beautiful, crisp, northeastern coastal skies, fully appreciating the luxury of being able to do so.
With the pleasure is to play i will celebrate our open skies while so many cannot.
the pleasure is to play was intended for Queen Mary University Gozo, Malta campus, The war for the time being has made this untenable.
queen Mary university london stepped in and accepted the show on their mile end campus.
frozen moments of fleeting clarity
st. Nicholas Cathedral Newcastle May 2019
A contemporary transient exhibition of our ever changing skies *within the permanent structure of the cathedral, holding the history and journey of its community in every stone.
ice cream
something to share
I saw this beautiful cumulus over Roker beach, a favourite place for ice cream
early evening horsetails
a fine teatime display outside my studio window
come on in i'm gonna teach ya how te swim
white plane trails cut through all clouds
the title comes from a favourite Alex Harvey lyric
so many moons we have seen stumbling back next to me
a great No Doubt lyric
long before i new him
thinking about my granda having a life long before me
paintings
vestiges of endlessly moving prospects
is a body of drawings, oil paintings, transparency plates and now prints
the title is an adaptation of Sir James Huttons' description of geological time, formed in the late 18th century, as he viewed the rock formations of Siccar Point Edinburgh;
'No vestige of a beginning....no prospect of an end.'
From the quick line drawings of our crisp north east coastal skies, as they form and disappear with their suggested
narrative,
the tonal tempera under painting on panel, used for its clarity luminosity and economy,
the cracking of the enfolded oil and varnish as the paintings develop with time and conditions,
to the blurring and momentary focus as the eyes traverse the transparent double image,
All have fleeting clarity, an always transitional, often illusory grasp of detail and focus.
a lot from a little ... all the paintings are guided by this principle.
them little sailing boats
standing on the east coast watching the sun set in the west
not long now
going to have to go full circle
diving through
