Collections


Headshots

The Headshots series is a close-up on species that have been brought close to extinction because of hunting, habitat-loss and climate change. While many of the paintings are of whole creatures, there is a particular focus upon their heads. This echoes the idea of ‘trophy hunting’ that has brought some species to the brink of extinction, and it also conveys the individuality of the subjects. So far, these have included a lion, a pangolin (a scaly anteater trapped and hunted for their scales that are traded across the world by are especially used in ‘traditional’ Chinese medicine), an osprey, a silverback mountain gorilla, a snow leopard and a hawksbill sea turtle.

Eucalyptus and Birch

I have, for some while, been fascinated by the bark of Eucalyptus trees: how the surfaces are so varied and how the bark exfoliates in drapes of different colours. It occurred to me that painting ‘portraits’ of parts of individual tree-trunks might achieve a ‘cross-over’ between abstraction and realism: with fascinating patterns that were also snapshots of moments in the lifetime of individual trees. Seeing these beautiful trees in Australia prompted me to look again at birch trees in arboretums in Britain and to see the parallels…

While still in its early days, I’m excited about the potential of this new project.

'Twisted Gold'. Oil on Canvas.