Whilst lecturing in Shrewsbury I discovered a passion for wood carving. The technician
found half-
I have always been influenced (after a very early visit to the Uffizi, Florence) by the beautiful early Renaissance painting which often tell a story through the devise of using different rooms / areas in the same picture. I use this devise to be able to incorporate various aspects of my memories into the same pieces, but with a strong narrative thread running through.
My carvings incorporate places I have been, which have influenced me and which mean much to me – Kintore, Scotland my home village / my time in Italy and also my partner’s family’s home in Mondovì, Italy / where I live now / and where I visited yesterday. Often using, to me, iconic buildings such as Kintore Town Hall (which I lived across from most of my childhood), Palazzo Vecchio bell tower in Florence, the black and white checkerboard marble floor of Aberdeen Art Gallery.
This is overlaid with memories of my childhood / my mother and father/ looking out my bedroom window in a small Scottish village hoping for a different life / being a student in the 60s in Aberdeen and the music of that time.
I work in lime wood, a beautiful and easy wood to work. It turns a lovely warm colour over the years. Apparently early English church sculpture was in lime and then gilded.
With Nick at the Black Swan (for PM)
Width 78 cms
Height 42 cms
Depth 8 cms
View from my decking
Width 46 cms
Height 42 cms
Depth 7 cms
Pictish standing stones at Black Swan Arts (long gallery)
Width 42 cms
Height 35 cms
Depth 7 cms
The Picts at Passchendaele
Width 41 cms
Height 32.5 cms
Depth 7 cms
The Aurora Borealis from my studio
Width 42 cms
Height 60 cms
Depth 9.5 cms
I awoke dreaming of Nunney
Width 50 cms
Height 37 cms
Depth 10 cms
Moving On
Width 90 cms
Height 53 cms
Depth 10 cms
Left with suitcase
Width 74 cms
Height 44 cms
Depth 10 cms
Aberdeen / Florence:
Listen for Malcolm’s footsteps
Width 66 cms
Height 34 cms
Depth 7.5 cms
Accrington :
Tiffany and view to motorway
Width 40 cms
Height 36.5 cms
Depth 7.5 cms
Kintore / Colne :
He never could tell jokes
Width 61.5 cms
Height 42.5 cms
Depth 7.5 cms
Kintore : Coronation week
Width 59.7 cms
Height 57.75 cms
Depth 7.5 cms
Home : I never knew Frank Zappa
Width 30.5 cms
Height 43.5 cms
Depth 7.5 cms
Florence/Cerne Abbas : Road over the tops to Bradford
Width 44.5 cms
Height 40.75 cms
Depth 7.5
On the road to Howarth
Width 30.5 cms
Height 37cms
Depth 7.5 cms
Mulder and Scully in Belgium
Width 40 cms
Height 43 cms
Depth 5 cms
Memories of Aberdeen Art Gallery
Width 33 cms
Height 43 cms
Depth 5 cms
Maiden stone
Width 24 cms
Height 43 cms
Depth 8 cms
Pictish stone in my home
Width 41 cms
Height 36 cms
Depth 6 cms