SLATE, I love working and creating my artwork with this wonderful material!
My friends know me as the Slate person.

Like any subject, when you have more knowledge of it, it becomes more interesting.
I work intuitively, and depending on what the slate feels like in my hands is where the pattern goes, and sometimes it refuses to play; luckily, that is a rare event, and I quickly find myself in the zone - the Slate Zone !

The tiny shards laced together to create a natural flow, swirling in motion or exploding into a dynamic pattern, is what makes me happy; that a static, hard material gives the impression of moving in front of your very eyes.

Depending on wheather the choice of Slate is the plum coloured chunky slate or the  blue grey delicate shards that i use determin a very different feeling in the finished piece.

I know for me as the maker an important part of my process is the tactile nature of handling the slate as i use it, each piece is chosen, handled, felt and then placed, as i move along in building the pattern my hand taps all the placed pieces to check they are secure and settled - there is a subtle sound that this makes that tells me it is right. 
I used to listen to Josie Long on Radio Four presenting a programme called Soundscape, and it reminds me of that.
















  

At the start of this year I was invited to do a podcast with Hayden Gallery in Marlow about my work. At first I was very nervous and apprehensive as having never done anything like this before. After due consideration and encouragement I plucked up courage and actually enjoyed the whole experience with Tracey Hayden gallery owner and fellow artist and Simon Burgess @sencondtimearound.


We discussed my journey of how I came to be an artist/ sculptor over the last fifteen years, including the people who have helped, inspired and influenced me, my love of natural materials and the creative energy enjoyed from having a studio space in amongst a creative group of artists at Wilcote Art Studios tucked under the beech trees of the ancient Wychwood Forest in Oxfordshire.


It felt like a cross between This is your Life with Eamonn Andrews (yes showing my age there!) and Desert Island Discs (without the music!) Tracing time and events to arrive here, with enthusiasm moving into the future and fresh ideas!


Do take a listen. - Behind the Canvas - Hayden Gallery - from slate to sculpture.
From slate to sculpture

podcast - On Spotify & youtube .

Tallis - Slate & Lead- 130cm 
​The biennial Sculpture exhibition at The Old Rectory, Quenington is one of my favourite outdoor exhibitions. I  have been coming here for may years and  in 2017 I had my tall abstract sculpture  called Strength installed by the waterwheel at the side of the Colne.  This year my Slate  work Tallis was accepted and currently resides amongst the eclectic work near the pergola.

I love the ethos of the exhibition that has a community programme that engages with children over the year and especially has numerous school visits that introduces children from many background’s and abilities to art. 


Seeing children playing around my sculpture and interacting is especially satisfying as sculpture provides an introduction to the world of art that can certainly enhance the lives of the young and throughout their lives, maybe some shall go on to become artists and have their own work at this exhibition in the future? 
Fresh Air Sculpture
(photo - Steve Russell)

​

It was a pleasure to be invited to join the White Space Art in Totnes.
After many years of visiting the glorious county of Devon it feels good to now have work in the county, so when Jolyon White contacted me I was more than delighted to accept the invitation.The gallery has a great collection of artists including Sarah Bowman, Vanessa Cooper and Chris Buck. 
As usual I delivered my work personally and rediscovered Totnes, the town was buzzing with  many independant shops, fine eateries, other galleries and cultural spaces, I can understand why it is such a vibrant town. I look forward to returning to this wonderful part of the world.

​2024 started with a massive change to my working environment.
I have worked since 2009 at the Bicester Sculpture Group shared Studio, but sadly last year the group were given notice on their  space at the OYAP centre. This resulted in a dilemma, should I move again with the group or look for a studio space on my own?
 I had been considering options for a while as sharing a space with others can be challenging especially if I have a number of ongoing pieces, so in September 2023 I started looking for alternative spaces in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds.

I remembered a rural studio complex that I had visited during Oxfordshire Arts week a few years ago and thought the set up was the sort of place I was looking for, friends and contacts were providing many suggestions but I kept thinking of that complex I had visited. 
I made enquires and when I visited the Wilcote Art Studios I met Richard Fox the sculptor who established the studios a few years ago. Richard very generously created a perfect space for me that looks out to the Beech tree woods.

So at last I have my own studio space where the creativity is flowing and it is a joy to drive there in the morning along the winding  country lanes.

Wilcote Art Studios is located in the Wychwood Forest, where 16 artists including painters, sculptors,ceramicists and a jeweller. Here is a link to the website  Wilcote Art

It was a wonderful surprise to open my copy of Cotswold Life magazine to find my work featured in the 'Made with Love in the Cotswolds'.
The feature was compiled by Candia McKormack is about unique handcrafted items that can be gifts for Christmas that are sourced in the Cotswolds from painters, sculptors, makers, designer and jewellers. 
There are so many wonderful shops, galleries and studio in the Cotswolds, including the Brian Sinfield Gallery in Burford where the featured 'Cotswolds Resonance' is currently exhibited.

In 2022 we visited St Ives, certainly one of my favourite seaside towns, in the glorious county of Cornwall, the town has the wonderful Tate St Ives, and the studio of the late great Dame Barbara Hepworth who is a major influence on all British sculptors naturally including myself. 
A female artist in a predominantly male work, she went on to become an internationally famous sculptor whose legacy can be seen across the world.



As usual we looked at probably all the contemporary galleries in the town that has literally 100’s of artists , there are many galleries that hold some wonderful art in many media but there was one that stood head and shoulders above the rest, found on Back street, with a small entrance down a slope the entrance is unassuming but what is inside is a total revelation.
The Penwith Gallery is the base for the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall.


The Society was founded in 1949 by a group of artists including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson Bernard Leach, Peter Lanyon, Sven Berlin and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, The society went on to include such luminaries as Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and even Henry Moore was an honorary member. The society also  played an important role in bringing the Tate Gallery to St Ives.


The Penwith Gallery has three associates exhibitions a year, but to be included requires a vigorous selection process and so I entered the maximum of two items for the Associates members Summer show, to my delight both of my works were selected. 


To add a Big Cherry to the cake of been selected, I found my work was placed at the approach to the exhibition in a room dedicated to Barbara Hepworth and included a wonderful original Hepworth Sculpture as well as the beautiful photographic portrait of the lady. 















​

Happy to return to Greys Court with the Oxford Sculptors Group, this time taking five sculptures. The gardens lend themselves to being an ideal backdrop for a sculpture venue. The indoor gallery space is the famous Cromwellian Room where Cromwell and his men stayed. The exhibition has thirty sculptors showing  over a hundred and fifty pieces displayed within these beautiful gardens in south Oxfordshire. 

Light - Bronze Resin  on Portland Stone 4/20               Slate & Lead Stack on Portland Stone- Unique.

At  a party I met someone who had seen at my work online and said that they liked my tall Slate Cone - Tallis, but had I thought of making a similar piece in local stone that would possibly sit more sympathetically in the Cotswolds.

Inspired by working in material other than slate I thought about the Cotswolds  houses that are built with warm honey coloured stone and have beautiful  stone roof tiles made from Stonefield Slate. The Stonesfield quarry closed down at the start of last century and to obtain slate stone of this type requires reclaimed material.

By luck a friend was having her roof retiled and the builder had some damaged material that I could use.The stone roof had been on that house for over two hundred years and now I was going try and recycle it to create art.

I spent weeks with a hammer splitting  the old stone into suitable sized pieces and then slowly built them up on to an armature (a frame base)  to create a tall Stone Cone, topping it off with a Lead apex.

It was wonderful to work with a fresh material to me and it feels good to have recycled and repurposed this natural and beautiful slate into my Sculpture. The new work is yet to be named, maybe someone has a suggestion?