The Work
The inspiration for a great deal of the work originates from a passionate interest in the people and places related to the history of the two World Wars.
The textured surfaces of the mixed media paintings, usually linked to specific places by their titles, often incorporate found objects from the battlefields of Europe: fragments of mess-tins, water-bottles and clothing; pieces of rusted shrapnel, bullet casings and sometimes earth from the battlefield itself.
Frequent returns are made to the places that impact upon the work, often by bicycle; to the invasion beaches of Normandy, to Ypres and the Somme, to bunkers, blockhouses, cemeteries and museums. Many of these sites are often secluded, neglected or overgrown and whilst they retain an atmosphere of tension and tragedy, they are also imbued with a strange, lingering beauty.
Similarly tactile pieces have been made based upon a lifetime love of the sea, as well as a series of paintings derived from a collection of aerial reconnaissance photographs. Stories told by World War One participants in the famous 1914 Christmas Truce form the basis for the most recent work.