A collection of abstract and surrealist drawings from years 2020 – 2022
2022
A Morning for Magpies (2022), Posca Pen on 29.7 x 42cm paper
I’ve always felt a strong connection to magpies, and loved watching them from my window. This piece was inspired by the view from my balcony on an early morning.
Woods(2022), Posca Pen on 14 x 30cm paper
I’ve always loved walking in the woods and created this simple piece as an appreciation of the simple textures that appear in wood-grain.
The Yellow Brick Road (2022), Posca Pen on 14 x 30cm paper
I drew this piece on an evening in spring when I was feeling full of all the joys of life. I had just come back from a walk in the sun and everything around me seemed bright and lovely. It inspired me to create this little, floral abstract.
Early Bird(2022), Posca Pen on 14 x 30cm paper
Pigeons are one of those creatures that are quite truly unloved by the general population. Often equated to diseased city rats, their past as companion birds is almost forgotten. I wanted to focus on the beauty of these loyal creatures and create a piece that showed them in a more favourable light.
A Venus Flytrap (2022) – Posca Pen on 14 x 30 cm paper
This piece is an exploration of the sexualisation of women particularly within pornographic imagery for the titillation of males. The decapitated neck of the female body is strangled by the the very fabric of the blanket that the penis gladly skips along to reach the disembodied legs. I’ve depicted the female forms in this way to represent the lack of agency and identity given to women seen as sexual objects. While most of the hands in the picture are welcoming and friendly, there is one hand that is a clenched into a fist, hidden behind the torso. I have done this to represent the seemingly innocuous face of the porn industry that hides a malevolent underside of human trafficking, addiction and disease. The name ‘A Venus flytrap’ hints that these circumstances are not favourable to the gleeful, little willy either.
2021
A Magpie’s Song The New Mona Lisa (2021), Posca pen on 14.8 x 21 cm paper
This drawing went missing after being exhibited with a certain collective and is presumed to have been stolen. I was quite upset at first as this had been one of my favourite pieces and as a self portrait, it felt all too intimate to have been stolen by a stranger. It took me a little while but after mulling it over for some time, I came to the conclusion that the Mona Lisa has also been stolen and well, if a person were to want something so badly that they would steal it, that is at least a compliment of my work.
Bella in the Witch Elm (2021), Posca Pen on 14.8 x 21cm paper
The title of this piece is inspired by the unsolved mystery of the woman’s remains found inside of tree. I enjoy listening to the Dark Histories podcast and when I heard this story, I wanted to make a subtle nod to it.
The Staring Game (2021), Posca Pen on 29.7 x 42cm paper
Three pan lovers (2021), Posca Pen on 14.8 x 21cm paper
Tessellating Torso Pattern(2021),Posca Pen on 29.7 x 42cm paper
I created this tessellation by first creating a paper stencil that could be used to create the repeating pattern. I really enjoyed using this technique and definitely plan to use this again, perhaps as a hidden background texture.
40 Days in Lilac(2021), Posca Pen on 59.4 x 84.1cm paper
Early on in my development as an artist, I was very inspired by the artwork of the psychedelic 60s and created this pieces as my response to that. It exists as a celebration of the divine feminine, nature, love and sensuality.
A Meadow in the Moss Valley(2021), Posca Pen on 59.4 x 84.1cm paper
Early in 2021, the UK was still in a pretty strict lockdown so there wasn’t much to do except go for a walk outside. I spent a lot of time walking in the Moss Valley with my father and created this piece documenting the flora I saw in one of our walks together. I’ve used something known as the dazzle pattern, used on British Ships in WWI, I really love the fragmented appearance it gave.
A Remedy for thought(2021), Posca Pen on 21 x 29.7cm Paper
I was coming back from a walk when I noticed this beautiful pattern on the woodgrain of a garage door. Entranced, I took a photo and ended up using the texture in this piece, I loved how the grain came out with such a jagged, low-quality computer graphic type texture that contrasted against the smoothness of the lines in the rest of the image. It creates a picture that feels to move between both a natural and an unnatural or even supernatural world.
Summer Mornings(2021), Posca Pen on 21 x 29.7cm paper
Sojourn in Spring(2021), Posca Pen on 21 x 29.7cm Paper
This was the first piece I created where I started to used thicker lines and the flowers which have now become a regular motif in my work. The flowers are based off of the four petaled lilac flowers which among their myriad meanings have the meaning of first love.
Untitled(2021), Posca Pen on 42 x 59.4cm paper
The Old Wyrm’s Ten Year Dream(2021), Posca Pen on 42 x 59.4cm paper
I Swear(2021), Pen on 21 x 29.7cm Paper
2020
A Malagan Reverie (2020) , Posca Pen on 42 x 59.4cm paper
In November of 2020 I moved to Malaga to escape the British Lockdown. I was alone in a strange country, living in a roach infested house with an Argentinian Neo-Nazi and a 40-year old Italian man named Dario who had bit me whilst I was cleaning. It was a bizarre time. I made this piece during that time and used books on animal anatomy, I’d found in a charity shop, as references for the textures.
Prancing in the Devil’s Slippers(2020), Posca pen on 59.4 x 84.1 cm paper
This was the piece that made me realise I wanted nothing more than to paint for the rest of my life. A self portrait.
The Languor of two sparring foxes(2020), Posca Pen on 59.4 x 84.1cm paper
The Bedroom Floor (2020), Posca Pen on 59.4 x 84.1cm paper
I created this piece at a strange time in my life. I was missing a friend that I had grown rather close to and we were also at the very early stages of the pandemic in 2020. Suffice to say, life was a little crazy. This piece is about manoeuvring the chaos and the messiness of life that felt so intimately like tip-toeing about a filthy bedroom floor.