About
What do you call a deer with no eyes?
I never begin a new collage with an idea it is almost always improvisational and reactive. The various elements shift and change, are added and taken away and are fairly random in choice. I’m interested in the way our minds select things, the way it tries to make sense of the information it is presented with and therefore organise and understand. I’m interested in not knowing the answers.
In the beginning the collages were done the old fashioned way, real actual bits of paper cut-up, torn, folded and maneuvered. Now they tend to evolve only in digital form as each element is scanned into a computer, cut-out and then the re-assembled. I resist the urge to manipulate or distort the source in any way other than scale and colour.
These digital versions are the starting point for larger oil paintings which can take many months to complete.
Their subject matter is derived from everyday published media, such as newspapers – this is the world as we are shown it. I could obviously select a different assortment of images, perhaps less melancholy, but I feel drawn to certain images precisely because they are painfull and difficult. The paintings reflect a sometimes disturbing image of the world.
Exhibitions
- 2015 – Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
- 2012 – Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen
- 2011 – Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen
- 2010 – Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen
- 1998 – The Glasgow Art Fair(with Riverside Gallery), Glasgow
- 1997 – Art Exposure Gallery, Glasgow
- 1997 – Compass Gallery, Glasgow
- 1996 – Riverside Gallery, Stonehaven
- 1995 – Morrison Portrait Award, Edinburgh
- 1995 – Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen
- 1994 – Morrison Portrait Award, Edinburgh
- 1993 – Grays School of Art Degree Show, Aberdeen
- 1993 – R.S.A Students Exhibition, Edinburgh
- 1993 – Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen
- 1992 – Wood Group Young Artists , Aberdeen