I was delighted to be invited to show 'In Parenthesis' at Dege & Skinner of Saville Row, London for Art in Mayfair 2023. Re-framed earlier in the year, the piece attracted considerable interest from passers by. For the story behind 'In Parenthesis' please see the post below.

 ‘In Parenthesis’ was made in early 2011 (revised in 2023) and was a reflective piece as I approached the end of my military career. For a number of reasons the piece provided a rather cathartic emotional release. The title is borrowed from David Jones’ haunting and epic prose-poem based on his experiences in the First World War. Like me, David Jones was an artist who served as a soldier before finding a release through art. In his prologue he describes his war years as written in a ‘kind of space between’ and describes the war itself as a parenthesis. Similarly, the years of my military service sit somewhat incongruously between leaving Art College and returning to the art making process some twenty plus years later. 
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In this, as with many of my works, I have presented the piece as a kind of riddle with clues in the materials and layered (and double) references which are sometimes literal but often deliberately ambiguous to entice the viewers to discover their own meaning. The canvas is a British medical stretcher from the First World War and the 180 moths are made from plaster of Paris. The straps of the stretcher, used to keep it together when folded, resemble parenthesis marks. Like the canvas of the stretcher, the plaster of Paris is a material used by both artists and medics alike. The moths are pinned, immobile to the canvas. Flags, emblems, war cemeteries and tented camps are amongst the more literal references. The frame is  made from mahogany; traditionally used to make campaign chests for military officers. The brass cabinet corners echo this theme and suggest encasement and the 'boxing off' of difficult themes. This is reinforced by the glass front to suggests a museum cabinet; reflecting how swiftly the major episodes of our life become consigned to history.

For more about David Jones and an associated work of art more directly based on his experiences see my post about 'A Wood in France'.

​'A Wood in France' depicts Mametz Wood near the River Somme in northern France. 

In July 1916 Mametz Wood was the scene of a fierce battle between British and German forces. Over a period of 5 days of intense close quarter fighting, the Welsh Division suffered nearly 4000 casualties as they struggled to prise the well-defended wood from its German Defenders.

Amongst those wounded in the battle was the artist, writer and soldier, David Jones (1895-1974). The experience was stay with him for the rest of his life and after the war the battle became the setting for the climactic scene in his literary masterpiece 'in Parenthesis'.

​When I was asked to produce a piece of artwork to accompany a WW1 related touring performance called 'Journey Through Conflict - From Then Until Now', I found myself turning to David Jones for inspiration and I began forming an idea to make Mametz Wood the subject of my artwork. With a copy of 'In Parenthesis' in hand I headed for France and exactly 102 years after David Jones had fought his way into the wood I stood there and contemplated what had taken place there. Needless to say the experience was a profound one for me as I tried to imagine the battle.

As I planned the artwork I considered trying to draw the battle or the shattered state of the wood after the battle but in the end I decided to depict exactly what I saw - just an ordinary wood in France and to share with the audience, as well as I was able, a sense of what it felt like to be in that space with it's ghosts and echoes of the battle.

Before leaving Mametz I gathered some branches from the wood and some earth from the area of a German trench. When I returned to my studio in Exeter I used the earth to make pigment for painting and the branches to make charcoal for drawing. The entire artwork is produced from these elements.

I was delighted to be invited to talk to GCSE english students on the topic of power and conflict and to describe how I deal with these subjects in my art work. Using my personal experiences as a professional soldier I also attempted to explain what I though the writers were getting at in their poems. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and felt honoured to get the opportunity to talk to such a bright and engaging group of students. My thanks to english teacher Rosie Fawbert Mills for the invitation. Read the college post here. 

A long term display of some of the larger works and a display illustrating simple methods for producing multiples - dry point etchings and slip cast porcelain sculpture. Thanks to Clive Adams of The Centre for Contemporary Arts and the Natural World (CCANW), Kym Dyer of Exeter University Innovation Centre and Naome Glanville of Exeter University Arts and Culture for facilitating.

The exhibition can be seen on weekdays from 9am-5pm (closed bank holidays and University closure days). For those interested in visiting, the Centre boasts and excellent cafe. 

A major project for 2017 into 2018 is to work as Artist in Residence with Devon Wildlife Trust in order to draw attention to their great work and, in particular, to highlight the 50 or so nature reserves they manage. Much of the work, therefore, will be landscape rather than wildlife, but I have enjoyed producing a few smaller pieces based mainly on birds I have encountered on my travels and these formed the basis of my show at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital earlier tis year. No doubt I will produce some more wildlife work as the project develops but I really want to capture the essence of some of the amazing sites managed by the Trust which range from coastal sand dunes to the moors and will include waterways, meadows, quarries and woodland. 

See the artworks here.