I completed a Fine Art degree at Cambridge School of Art in 2020 after a long career in mental health care. I am interested in the representation of experience, memory and patina. Degree work was inspired by my continuing work with homeless people at Jimmy’s Cambridge a charity that provides accommodation and support. All proceeds from my work go to Jimmy’s.
2023 has been about exploring light through glass including the previous theme of distortions through old glass from new photographs of other towns and cities. I have painted in oils, watercolour and tried out making stained glass panels. Stained glass window-making was a revelation. The technicalities of making were fascinating, challenging and an art in themselves. The design offered the opportunity to manipulate light through the image instead of reflected light. This meant considering the specific location for the work, the light available, the effect of the glass itself and paint fused onto it and the purpose of the panel. It was slow work and needed the equipment of the class situation so the output is small so far. The paintings were a continuing exploration of the abstraction created by glass and the isolation of a restricted element of a scene. The scene dissolves into forms and planes that are not specifically located or recognisable. The image prompts new interpretations specific to the viewer’s own memories and experiences.
in 2024 I have produced further paintings prompted by the view of a scene through ancient glass. This time the scenes are of a street performance in Porto Portugal. The crowd becomes fragmented and the image a turbulence of light and activity. The viewer decides what is going on.
Lately I was also inspired by a new topic. A friend showed me a dazzling photograph of a cabinet of wine glasses alive with reflected and refracted light. I was intrigued and challenged and have been interpreting this idea in several watercolour and oil paintings. I worked with the play of light and the rhythm of the forms as they interact and repeat into abstraction.
Refractions and reflections - a cabinet of wine glasses. 2024 Oil on canvas board 28 x 41cm.