After a successful career as an art director in London, I realised a long-held ambition to relocate to West Cornwall and rekindle my love affair with printmaking. My studio is based on a dairy farm just a few miles from Land’s End. To state that my work is deeply rooted in West Penwith’s rugged coastal environment seems clichéd, almost trite, but it is this affinity with the local landscape and environment that motivates and underpins much of my work.

 My practice investigates the myriad textural complexities evident in the ancient granite rocks and cliffs that dominate the landscape of Land’s End. This is coupled with a fascination in the form and shape of these monoliths resulting from eons of wind and water erosion. As a surfer I’m also mesmerized by the energy of the ocean and the action of the sea in shaping much of this landscape.

I work primarily with the silkscreen process in my printmaking, although I occasionally like to explore collagraphs, linocuts and etchings as well. Indeed, my silkscreen process has been influenced by the subtle and nuanced textures which these other print mediums create so well. As digital technology has developed and become ubiquitous, so fine artists, illustrators and graphic designers have once again embraced the silkscreen process, exploiting its potential for unexpected and unpredictable outcomes.

In my practice I have become more and more interested in creating textural fields in multiple overlays which give depth and resonance to my prints and have a more ‘hand-crafted’ aesthetic. In earlier works this manifested itself by painting a resist diectly onto screens, but was ultimately quite clumsy and not very refined. I then explored more photographic treatments which gave much finer textures but was too controlled and lacked spontaneity.

I now work with Trugrain film onto which I can draw, paint and create random textures which can then be exposed directly onto a screen without requiring an interim photographic process. I have a library of these textured screens which I combine with hand-cut paper stencils to create multiple semi-transparent inked layers, which produce depth and a rich complexity. I am now exploring a process whereby I randomly pour ink directly onto the screen so that each pull of the squeegee produces variable colour merges and renders each print unique.

During lockdown my work has become less representational and more distilled into pure abstraction. The focus of my imagery has become more conceptual and, perhaps strangely, more colourful and celebratory.

I exhibit as a group member of PZ Studios in Penzance and was selected for the Fen Ditton Gallery Contemporary Printmaking Prize 2021.

As an elected member of the Cornwall Crafts Association, I am represented at its gallery in Trelissick, as well as the Padstow Gallery and The Penwith Society Gallery, among others.