Wanting to get a handle on pencil drawing again, I decided to push this first developed drawing as a ‘Straight Laced’ work (I’m not ready to push this one just yet). In the back of my mind, I’ve held the image of works by Hockney, his fairytale series, the likes of Rapunzel in particular, the act of escape and rescue. These works he produced were clean cut etchings edited with such skill and an almost brutalist reduction. Not frills or spills.
Also, my love of hard graphic novels, the likes of Frank Miller and Alan Moore. In particular Sin City. Gritty and brutal with an articulate awareness of a reductive aesthetic, akin to Japanese prints.
Other inspirations are erotic etchings, as well as, cinematic imagery.
‘Straight Laced’
Pencil on paper
16 x 8.2cm
2026
In preparation for this years @art_car_boot_fair
#twitchers
So faint, you might…
'Twitchers'
Pencil studies on a Sunday
12x7cm each
#twitchers #snitchesgetstitches
When I was around 11/12 I was home alone and decided to put some sausages under the grill. They spitted so much the tray set alight. I immediately put the grill tray under the kitchen tap. Fat, Fire and water is explosive. A huge ball of fire mushroomed up and out and set my mums kitchen nets on fire. I’ve never sweated so much in my entire life. I flapped a tea tray to stop the flames. I don’t know what else I did, but I extinguished the flames. What an event! Lessons were learnt that day.
Singed nets and cheeks and a tale of the unexpected.
My early years of art were not informed by art galleries, but by my Dad’s comic book shop. Forbidden Graphic novels, cartoons and pop culture. The exposure to these “artworks" definitely feeds into my aesthetic today. A arena where cartoonish motion and erotic imagery collides, the world of comics is weirdly polarised. I hadn’t set foot into an art gallery until I was 19, and that’s when I knew, I wanted to pursue art. The national gallery blew everything up, and blew me away. The awe was transformative.
This week animating toes, evoking cartoonish sounds. Next week, women running out of view… the mind can go anywhere when painting. It’s a time and place travelling machine.
‘Seek and Hide’
Oil and genuine gesso on panel
40cm x 30cm
Work in progress
Feeling the weight of questioning every little stroke today, the whys and wherefores, it’s good but hard.
Detail view:
'Curtains/Fringe' #workinprogress
‘Power Move’ Oil and genuine gesso on panel
20x15x3cm
A buttery work in progress…
Refocusing on painting as installation, there are now many new works on the walls, sharing confessions.
