Gallery

Many of the original works are for sale, and prints of most can be obtained. Just use the contact form on the website and I will get in touch with you. I am also open to commissions: working from photographs I have depicted children and animals!

Ref: 0001 : Einstein - Graphite (Print) : 16 x 12 : £ 65

Although he is another of my heroes, a man ahead of his time, here is Einstein under the magnifying glass, set against the web of creation
as it breaks down as a result of the atomic bomb, which he urged the US President to create – because he knew the Nazis were close to creating one.

Behind him is the biblical quotation from Belshazzar’s Feast Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, which literally translated means “Weigh, Weigh, Measure and Count”
which I take as a reference to scientific method but which is commonly rendered and “You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

Ref: 0002 : Spit’n’Image - Graphite : 10 x 8 : £ 275

The Spitting Image puppets from the satirical TV show of the 1980’s are shown with their creators.

In the current political climate I wish there was still such a programme.
Do you recognise any of them, and can you tell which are the puppeteers?

Ref: 0003 : Speedaway - Acrylic : 10 x 8 : £ 150

My love of motorbikes made me interested in this amazing balancing act, where even the tyre is going sideways.

Ref: 0004 : Ozzy - Acrylic : 16 x 12 : £ 195

A commissioned portrait for Kerrang!! magazine in the 1980’s.

I used primary colours to heighten the impact of the piece, and particularly
wanted the eyes to be red, in keeping with the real Rock Hero.

Ref: 0005 : Meat Loaf - Acrylic : 16 x 12 : £ 195

A commissioned portrait for Kerrang!! magazine in the 1980’s.

I wanted the colours to echo the dark raw impact of his music, to heighten the impact and I used triple sources to amplify the
effect of the piece so that one’s eyes are drawn to the screaming image of Meat Loaf. Just as you want from a real Rock Hero.

Ref: 0006 : John - Pencil : 24 x 15 : £ 175

A portrait of a friend from my teens who I still see.
Very handsome, he travelled to India every winter following the hippy trail between Goa and the Himalayas..

Ref: 0007 : After Monet no 1 - Oil on canvas : 24 x 20 : £ 800

Monet is one of my most favourite artists, and I have learned a lot from his eye for colour and his fascination with atmosphere.
Nearly all his paintings dwell on the interplay of water and air, and the series painted in London around 1900 all tell
of the grimy yet superbly atmospheric air of the centre of Empire at its height.

Here Monet’s impression of fog over the Thames is accented by a nuclear explosion from the West in place of the sun.

Ref: 0008 : The Cage of Stars - Acrylic : 30 x 16 : NFS

Inspired by my childhood obsession with Superhero comics I wanted to show the situation of every man as he rises from the primordial
ooze and stands erect against the winds of fate and restrained within the astrological cage formed by the universe of stars.

I am Gemini and my wife is Pisces, both of which are shown here in the stars.

Ref: 0009 : Electrical Conductor - Graphite : 15 x 10 : £ 295

The conductor Lorin Maazel is caught in a moment of complete focus and concentration at the climax of an unknown work of art;
a celebration of the intensity and mystery of creative effort. The density of the graphite intentionally intensifies the image.

Ref: 0010 : After Monet no 2 - Oil on canvas : 20 x 24 : £ 800

Monet’s wife and son are shown walking in the field above their house in Giverny, where he painted the famous poppy field.
Monet’s superb use of simple colour was the cause of my desire to attempt to copy it.

The effects are achieved with only four colours, which proved very complicated but highly satisfactory in the end.

Ref: 0011 : Do I hear £6 million? - Graphite and oil pastel : 14 x 10 : £ 495

This was what the auctioneer said when this Picasso Harlequin painted on board came up for auction.
I loved the expression on his face and so I made this collage of the auctioneer and the original painting, rendered here in pastel.

Ref: 0012 : I get blues I can taste - Pencil and printed matter : 16 x 12 : £ 395

A black American car worker settles down to play the blues, a magazine cover juxtaposed against a pencil drawing
gives a feeling of a man behind bars, caught between two worlds. The Telegraph magazine photo has been cut
into strips forming the message of how it feels to have the blues, as I do. Blues you can taste.

Ref: 0013 : Edison - Pencil : 16 x 12 : £ 699

An earlier work elaborately drawn in honour of one of my heroes, the man who invented the twentieth century.
In the background are some of his many inventions which prefigured the society we know: Light, power generation
and distribution, recorded sound, bi-directional telephony and moving celluloid film projection.
He was the Bill Gates of his time, and his personal wealth at the end of his life was over thirty billion dollars. His was the vision that shaped your world.
Here the detail is such that the sweater probably took longer to draw than it did to knit!

The ‘Edison Effect’ that he first noticed led to the electronic valve, and his talks with Marconi led to the Television,
yet he was very humble, and said, “Until we can create a blade of grass, all Science is bunk”. He meant that technology should
never assume superiority over nature, because we are still a long way from true understanding of even the most basic processes
of nature. This remains true to this day, even with regard to the contentious area of genetic manipulation.

Ref: 0014 : Clay by Klee (Celebrating the Cracks) - Earthenware, gold leaf, acrylic : 27 x 27 : £ 2,500

This photograph does not show the three dimensional aspect of this ceramic “canvas”.
In recent years I have been trying to fuse two-and three-dimensional art in an original manner. I became fascinated by
the quality of clay when treated as canvas: my fingers and brain found it difficult to reconcile its visual and tactile properties.
A harbour scene originally painted by Paul Klee satisfied the visual aspect of the clay (Clay by Klee) and as a further
mark of respect there is an inscription at the base about the duality of representation (after Rene Magritte)

The ceramic process breeds many failures due to the phenomenal strains produced under firing and this piece cracked when being removed
from the kiln. I loved it enough to repair it, and loved the crack enough to retain and celebrate it. In the Japanese ceramic tradition
of Kintsugi an imperfection would be celebrated by painting it gold, particularly if fired in a Raku kiln where stresses are much higher.

More recently the piece was broken when moving house and once again I laboriously pieced together the remaining parts
of this three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle and gilded the edges. A labour of love.

“There is a crack, a crack in everything…. That’s where the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen

Ref: 0015 : Yuri Gagarin - Pencil and graphite : 17 x 12 : £ 395

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, is counterpoised with the MIR space station (now the International Space Station).

I was struck by the vulnerability of the man, surrounded by all the technology of the 20th century in order to survive.
It is a work in praise of heroism and endeavour, set against the human limitations of life on earth.

Ref: 0016 : Out of the Blue - Pegboard, paper and acrylic : 49 x 31 : £ 950

I was shocked and stunned by the attack on the World Trade Centre, which caused a transformation in global society and human freedom.
Here that traumatic moment is rendered in a cartoon fashion, in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, the famous American pop artist.
It seemed appropriate, but when shown in an exhibition it was universally criticised for its lack of compassion.
It created a greater reaction than any other work of mine.

Ref: 0017 : Lauren - Graphite : 10 x 14 : £ 150

A friend’s daughter, who I have know from birth, sits like a Madonna with my son Adam in this quick sketch.
I find it amazing that such a simple drawing can have such depth and beauty.

Ref: 0018 : Plato - Ceramic : 6 x 4 x 3 : £ 195

An exercise in three-dimensional form showing the philosopher pondering the five solids,
in which the different elements have reacted in distinct ways as a result of the intense firing.

Ref: 0019 : Child’s Pose - Ceramic : 4 x 2 x 2 : £ 85

Simple, elegant and highly tactile miniature demonstrating excellent control of the clay.

Ref: 0020 : Clapham Common Affair - Watercolour : 52 x 36 : £ 1500

A former lover of mine painted in the squat we shared in Clapham.

Painted in the heat of inspiration, kneeling on the floor, it is one of my most immediate works.
Every stroke is unchangeable once made when using watercolour unlike oil paint.

Ref: 0021 : Curly’s Imaginary Flute - Watercolour : 16 x 11 : £ 550

Curly was a homeless man. He was completely bald, hence his nickname, the only one he answered to.

He came into our café when the weather was cold as the hostel forced the inmates to leave at 9.00 each morning.
He came in with eyes and nose streaming, just wanting warmth and music. He often stood in the corner pretending
to play along with the music, pursing his lips around a metal coat hanger bent in two and fingering it lovingly.
He was completely happy and absorbed when he did this, carrying his coat hanger with him.

He could perform handstands on the railings along the street. We assumed he originally came from a circus. One day he came no more.

Ref: 0022 : Gymnast no 1 - Graphite : 32 x 25 : £ 395

The gymnast, Alina Kubaeva, pictured manipulating a ball with her feet. It seems so strange, and indeed almost
impossible, to contort the human frame into such a pose. Yet she looks beautiful and smiles radiantly.

Ref: 0023 : The Lone Tree - Watercolour : 12 x 10 : NFS

This painting was commissioned for a musician friend for his new album, composed from several views of the Dartmoor landscape
it evokes the primal nature of the moor itself, and shows the tree as a symbol of strength and individuality.

Ref: 0024 : The Key - Found Art : 20 x 15 : NFS

This is an enigmatic piece of information in the hunt for Jill Dando’s killer, who has never been found.
In the week before her death the Radio Times ran this front cover with an unfortunate, or prescient
advert on the rear cover. Co-incidences like this are rarely insignificant.

Ref: 0025 : The Secret of Phi - Stoneware, pewter glaze, sgraffito : 21 x 13 : £ 680

This piece was envisaged as an archaeological find, like the Rosetta Stone, an important leap in our understanding of
the world and its history. It was meant to have a crude appearance, as though carved from stone and lost for long ages.
I find it a remarkable phenomenon that runs through Nature.

The Italian mathematician Fibonacci in the 16th century devised a numerical series that corresponds very closely to Phi,
the Golden Mean, or Golden Section (1.685:1).It also corresponds to many features in nature, from the seed patterns
of a daisy to the shape of galaxies and primitive crustaceans. It governs the shape of the Rolls Royce radiator, the
Acropolis, and the harmonious construction of pictures. When joined by a line as shown it describes a spiral.

If you add 1+1, you get 2. Add the resultant to the latter, i.e. 2+1=3, 3+2=5, 5+3=8 and you get an incremental series
which approaches Phi as the numbers increase. In terms of two-dimensional shapes, take the longer side of an initial
rectangle and use it as the shorter side of a second rectangle from which you project a longer side, and so on
until a galaxy is created with arc lengths defined by the Fibonacci series.

Ref: 0026 : The Unknown Child - Watercolour : 8 x 10 : £ 95

This lovely child was requested as a commission by a patron of the café we ran.
When the time came to deliver it, the mother shunned it but as a piece of work I liked it and so kept it.
She would not pay me anyway, even though the price was small; I still do not know why.

Ref: 0027 : This is Not a Landscape - Ceramic : 29 x 23 : £ 575

A blank canvas, a piece of cloth hanging over a frame or a piece of clay formed to look like a painting.
Unlike Clay by Klee this piece was never painted or glazed, it shows a strange subtlety of form,
with an inscription inspired by Magritte’s work “Ceci n’est pas une Pipe”

Ref: 0028 : Signs in the Firmament - Oil : 17 x 24 : £ 450

Many years ago I was struck by the apparition of two jet aircraft contrails crossing in the sky; a sight I had
never seen before. It made me think of the biblical prophecy in Revelations of signs in the firmament.
Imagine a prophet from a time when the skies were clear having such a vision.

Now of course we see dozens every day – to the extent that our weather is altering
because of the gauzy veil of vapour that spreads across the sky, dimming the sun.

Ref: 0029 : When the Lion Roared - Graphite : 17 x 24 : £ 450

Modern icons are those images that we have all seen, and sometimes do not even realise we have seen.

When MGM films first decided to show a lion roaring as their logo on every film, an icon was created.
However, we never see the making of the image, except by chance as in this publicity photograph of the
making of that very film. The primitive nature of the staging and filming, and the fashion of the times
caused me to re-create this act of icon creation.

Note that the floor is of sand, and in the background one can see the bars of the circus cage
in which it was filmed. We have entered the world of Smoke and Mirrors.

Ref: 0030 : Andy Warhol - medium ?? : ?? x ?? : £ ???

Andy was and is a fascination of mine.

This is a small tribute to him, in pen and ink and Acrylic paint.
He truly redefined the realm of art – for good or bad.

Ref: 0031 : The Mutant Gene - Ceramic : ?? x ?? : £ ???

This ceramic piece references the double helix of RDNA (ribonucleic acid) and was very difficult to achieve
due to the technical complications involved. It has a fascinating visual dynamic when seen in the flesh.
The mutated genes are what eventually age us and lead to mortality.

Ref: 0032 : Barcode Mirrors on display at an exhibition. - medium ?? : ?? x ?? : £ ???

I got interested in Barcodes in the ‘90’s when they appeared on every item.

Each of these mirrors reveals the viewer framed against a barcode, each barcode being unique to the mirror.
The code is divided by three longer double lines, each of which represents a number 6, in order to be
readable in any orientation by scanners. This gives rise to the conspiracy theory that barcodes have
the biblical Number of the Beast embedded in them.

Gallery

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