About

I am an artist working across photography, film, sculpture, installation, painting, whatever seems best. While my practice has been largely on hold since the lockdown, I am currently emerging from a period of "hibernation." During those fallow years, I kept my making needs fed through painting birds, learning silversmithing, and attempting to make peace with my garden.

My work evolves in direct reaction to daily life—what I see and everything that happens around me. Before the lockdown, my projects focused heavily on the intersection of traditional art and modern digital culture:

The Backdrop Paintings: An exploration of the relationship between "selfies," painting, and the history of portraiture.

Selfie Disrupter: I provided an alternative to digital self-obsession by taking traditional portraits against hand-painted backdrops.

Touched Up: This series used images of exquisite, dying flowers and hand gestures to invite viewers to confront Western culture’s complex response to age and mortality.

Pencil Test: Following the themes of Touched Up, this film toured with Empire II, starting at the Venice Biennale 2017 and concluding at MACO in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2019.

Eye eye: This small sculpture, shown in the group exhibition Minuscule at the Venice Biennale 2019, was honoured with the Minuscule Art Award.

As I navigate my 50th year, I’ve begun to realise that my art closely mimics the rhythm of my life. I am originally from Wales and now live in East Sussex, though I continue to work in London managing technicians at the Royal College of Art. It's a moment of change and emergence.

I completed my Professional Doctorate in Fine Art in 2015 at the University of East London. Whether I am in the studio or the garden, my work remains a record of my engagement with the world.

What I've been up to:

Covid-19, lockdown and artist support pledge

When Covid – 19 changed the world it took me a long time before I could produce artwork. I still …

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RCA Hidden 2020

I fund myself by working at the Royal College of Art as a technician, managing the three digital print labs …

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Eye Eye – Venice Biennale 2019

For this year’s Venice Biennale I had to keep to 5cm x 3cm x 3cm. To continue the theme of …

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“Mine” -Cross Lane Projects

For Miniscule Part2 – and exhibition at Cross Lane Projects in Kendal over 220 artists took up the invitation from …

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How to make a Polite Protest by creating a short film

In February 2019 I travelled to Oaxaca, Mexico to deliver a workshop with fellow artist Anita Bryan as part of …

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The Backdrop Paintings

This current project evolved form the “Selfie Disrupter” series of photographic portraits: a reaction and contemplation of the phenomenon of …

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Selfie Disrupter – the images

On the 30th September and 1st October 2017 I took 40 portraits as part of open studios at Deborah House, …

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Selfie Disrupter

This weekend alongside Sluice Biennial http://www.sluice.info/ Deborah House Studio is opening to the public. I will be there Saturday 30th …

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Self portraits as Patriarchal Painters, 2007

In 2006 I began a series: “Self Portraits as Dead Iconic Patriarchal Painters” to deal with the contradictory emotions involved …

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Residencies at ArToll 2012+2014

Directional Forces 2012 Artoll, Bedburg-Hau, Germany www.artoll.de Residency: 4-18 March 2012 Viewing: 17 March 2012 1pm – 5pm Martin Barrett …

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The Pencil Test, 2016

In response to the theme of Anxiety I created a short film that is being shown at the 57th Venice …

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Treasure, 2009

In 2009 I saw a call for art for an exhibition called: Travelling Light at the WW Gallery London. They …

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CSM, Escapist Magazine, 1998

My education at St Martins, under the tutelage of Keith Wilson and Bruce Gernand, gave me an understanding of conceptual …

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MA Show, Byam Shaw, 2005

Using photography as a tool to gather evidence this series manifests itself as square images; a building block system used …

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couple, red, nude, dark

Intimacy and distance

As the Witnessing Woman series matures I recognise that distance has become an important element in my photography. I mean …

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eye, nude male

The Nude Male – curated by Julie Cook and Nerys Mathias, 2015

The Nude Male Curated by Julie Cook and Nerys Mathias 18-20th March 2015, AVA Gallery, University of East London The …

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Gestures, 2014

During a residency in Germany in 2014 I photographed myself making gestures, thinking about relationships and sex and playing with …

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