What will happen when the trees lose control?
A Dream on Toraston Beach, Coll
A totally magical moment on the Isle of Coll during the narrow window of a Scottish summer - sufficient enough to enable a warm blooded person to swim alongside her selkie soulmate.
Top Heavy Leviathans
Reclaiming the skies
The air is raining birds, falling
against a blue mediterranean backdrop.
We watch the skies and mediaeval rooftops
fill with aerial action as swifts slice open
airspace in search of fledgling fuel.
Sometimes we believe we are flying
with them in a game of human acrobatics
screaming with joy as we dip and dive
to street level, turn on a wing beat
to rise up again, hearts in our mouths.
Wild Wildwood's of Dumfriesshire
Reclaiming the village
Above the mediaeval streets a kestrel
hovers over baby pigeons crouching
in the roof shade on red-hot tiles.
They fiercely raid their mothers crop
blind to the drifting predator’s focus.
The air is raining birds, falling
against a blue mediterranean backdrop.
We watch the skies and rooftops fill
with aerial action as swifts slice open
airspace in search of fledgling fuel.
Sometimes we believe we are flying
with them in a game of human acrobatics
screaming with joy as we dip and dive
to street level, turn on a wing beat
to rise up again, hearts in our mouths.
A light switches off in Tejeda
The drama of the nights sky from the dizzy heights of Tejeda in Gran Canaria perched high above the shattered rim of a caldera is other worldly. Its easy to imagine a battle for power going on in the skies above.
Burning a Business
Undoing all that creativity and energy that goes into setting up a business - nothing can really prepare you for the unravelling.
Wicklow Mountains National Park
Striking colours in autumn at Glendalough - just had to catch the amazing purple grey and plum colours of the coarse Wicklow granite boulder scree and the smooth shiny schist contrast with the gold and blue green of the woodland. The lough is impassive and reflective.
My sister asks what the birds are saying
One of the wonderful things about my sisters dementia is her new way of looking at the world. What would I say if I were a bird calling and what bird would I be? A real chance to think about character and sound with a fabulous Australian bird soundtrack.
The Loom of Midwinter
In the moment
Always something in nature that seems to mimic the natural processes of human decline. Always something to find beauty in.
Making Kumquat Marmalade with my Sister
Not sure if this is the last thing we will do together but it was a poignant moment.
The Lost Universe of her Brain
Watching the slow disintegration of a loved one's mind feels like the collapse of a universe or the cosmos
Let the medium guide you
Another visit to the Lund Studio in summer where I try to absorb the mantra of the tutor. I'm not quite convinced that my final last art piece truly reflects the genus loci of Sutton Bank and the Vale of York. It seems to have turned into a seascape - perhaps that is where my heart wants to be and is my real passion.
High on Sutton Bank
Never fails to astonish me - the view across the Vale of York from Sutton Bank escarpment path on the fringes of the North York Moors- for air and a distant horizon. Walking its edge, catching the racing light driving across the horizon over its patchwork of fields. Drama in the sky - nuclear clouds, kestrels diving, gliders soaring fragile in the aggressive wind. I used my completed mixed media paintings plus videos and sound recordings taken when on the plateau.
Sky-Scouring
I can’t resist these glorious aerial acrobats - another homage to their exuberance and energy. How can you not feel happy when you watch them?
Another Return
A journey south combining a full range of childhood memories with a true celebration of a life, now lost, but just as much a part of all those stored precious nuggets of memory.
Mining my sister's memory - launch
Delighted to present my poetry pamphlet as part of the poetry contributions to the launch of Pushing out the Boat publication no 18 at Newton Dee 18th May 2025. I also had 2 of my art works on display of which one is featured in the publication. Mining my Sisters Memory explores the loss of my sister to dementia through the pain and power of earth’s natural processes.
Memory circulates like the blood stream * - but what heppens when the human equivalent of a glacial erratic or a fault line halts its movement.
*Muriel Spark
