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
Keeping up with my sister
The disconnect between reality and memory is gaining traction as my sisters dementia progresses. This slow decline is almost like a great glacier in recession and a loss of great significance in my life.
The sound of an elliptical path
The Azores seas and wind are a constant presence along with the accompanying howling and roaring - completely mesmerising and often quite scary. A human becomes such a small part in this massive repetitive cycle. The earth's moon hauling the seas backwards and forwards day in and day out as we slowly spin around our sun.
Vasto Universo
A found poem based on an exhibition by Isabel Madureira Andrade in the Arquipélago Contemporary Arts Centre, San Miquel, the Azores - designed by João Mendes Ribeiro, Architects.
It reflects the other worldly atmosphere of this misty, mysterious island surrounded by a heaving Atlantic and still bubbling and seething with volcanic activity.
Taynish Oak Woodland, Argyll
Delighted to submit my entry for the exhibition - Create for Climate at Port William, Dumfries and Galloway run by Machar sand Cree Valley Climate Action Network. This is Taynish National Nature Reserve famous for its ancient atlantic oak woodlands and lichens.
Boundaries
Accepted for the White Cube exhibition at StAnza, Scotland's International poetry festival, March 2025 and part of the Off Page visual poetics annual celebration. This is a poem about deep time geology and crossing the divide between Hampshire and Dorset and below surface memories it reveals. The soundtrack is composed especially for this poem with Catherine Eunson on Cello and Alison Cohen on percussion.
Cycle
Inspired by the wonderful 1950's book - The Pebbles on the Beach- by Clarence Ellis and the varied coastline of Scotland where the life cycle of a pebble is on display at all times. The may be another metaphor in there as well.
Caldera Taburiente, La Palma, Canary Isles
An inversion at the summit. The cloud rolls up over the aptly named Barranco del Diablo and the shattered rim of the collapsed caldera. Blasting cold wind at 2400m - its 9C and at sea level its 26C. I’ve returned to coloured pencils - first time since world travels in 1990 - and its hard work.
