About The Artist

It has always been wood. It began at college in Bristol when I made sculpture from timbers hauled from the river. A sojourn in Wales with goats, stone walls, and weather led to an escape to teaching woodwork in Hackney, and then an unexpected connection with Milton Keynes led me here to Gawcott where there were already too many carpenters. Three things happened to get me back to art making and into making me a living with it. Firstly it was a gift from Mexico, a carved and painted wooden fish. I was struck by its crude vitality and knew I wanted to make things like this. Next, I spent a summer school week carving with Howard Raybould, whose work I had been admiring. Then, an Enterprise Allowance Scheme grant, got me started as a full-time woodcarver in 1985. What am I up to now? Firstly I take pleasure in working with wood as a material, how it cuts with sharp tools, the smell of it. Secondly, I use relief carving to unite picture making with the physical deliberateness of carving, combine colour with the crisp use of light and shade, and play with shape, form, pattern, and textures. This is the language and material I use to make sense of all the things we celebrate and worry about. What comes out of this are all my wall mounted relief pieces. Thirdly, I carve dishes, bowls, plates, pendants and paperknives. So I alternate between making art with my carving and woodwork skills and working as a craftsman producing batches of useful carved, decorative objects. My commissioned output ranges from large public art work such as signage for hospitals, and sculptural furniture; house signs; wedding gifts; and monuments for green burial sites. After twenty six years in a country manor house stone outbuilding I have moved to a very much smaller ex-dairy shed on a working farm. Instead of the fragrances of herbs and flowers, what wafts in through my workshop door are now the smells of sheep and pigs.