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Upcoming events followed by news of recent creations and activities

2008 Exhibitions and Craft Shows






June 6, 7, 8	Mill Marsh Park Bovey Tracey Devon	A really enoyable show, like a cross between Origin and Art in Action!


June 28, 29, 30	Brockley Open Studios Workshop 94 Manor Avenue	39 Artists exhibiting at 29 Studios


July 17- 20	Art in Action Waterperry House Oxford	My 4th year at this wonderful, varied and interesting show. Something for everybody

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Winter 2006

	A pair of cranes in douglas fir. The crests are made from splayed paintbrushes known as fantail blenders.		A Napoleon or Humphead wrasse. Too big to be carved on the bandsaw!




Spring 2005

	This large seal looks more pup- like than the original smaller version I make due to the altered proportions		A commission from Harry Scott for an Irish Terrier. I worked and reworked the coat in order to get the look and feel of hair which can be difficult to render in wood





The lovely Lilibeth with the angel she commissioned. The timber had natural undulations which suggested linen folds. The wings are in douglas fir. The hair is from strands of root fibre. It was an unusual commission		because we had meetings at each stage of development over several months. Lilibeth has a large collection of angels some of which are housed in a specially built chapel in the Phillipines		A puffin also commissioned from Harry Scott. This is the second puffin I've made. It's interesing to compare the two. The first was made 15 years ago


Winter 2004


This is little Reggie, a beautiful little budgie who flew into my garden in September last year. I tried to find the owners but to no avail. He captured our hearts with his friendliness and bright spirit. He was rarely caged and spent many happy hours in the workshop. Sadly he died after a flying accident. He is buried under the damson tree and I've made a wooden version of him to mark the spot. We will miss him a great deal, sweet bird


Summer 2004


A wonderfully chewed-by-dog little puffer fish arrived for repair. I thought it gave him a lot of character and made me laugh but I suppose rather a lot of his face is missing. The owners understandably want a repair or a replacement. The figure of a man with a peg on his nose and holding a fish has on his T-shirt "Guests, like fish, after 3 days, begin to smell" Benjamin Franklin. My entry for 'Peg Dollies on the move' an exhibition at Brewery Arts in Cirencester, raised £95 in auction . The whole auction raised £2,205 for the Development Fund.

Walking, Talking, Rocking Chickens! The chicken shown here in green wellies was in the workshop for some time waiting for a shapely pair of Shakespearian legs because the wood had cracked in such a way it looked like doublet, but I ran out of time and had to get legs on quickly, so wellies it was. I think they suit her. I have experimenting for some time with textures on chickens and started striking or burning the surface with letters and numbers. I have now personalised a few chickens for birthdays and weddings but the effect remains as a feather texture. The black dog was a wedding present made from the last piece of wormy ash in my store. It's head turns and he squeals rather pityingly as the wood rubs together.
Summer 2003


This summer I produced my first painting in 25 years! I hope to have an exhibition next year of paintings and photographs.The activity of painting seemed to spark off a cockerel with legs and a paint-splashed tail feathers.s There was some careful painting involved in a piece with my longest title yet "The symbiotic relationship of sea anemone and clownfish" A slightly wormholed piece of ash seemed just right for the bull terrier which quickly sold at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
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Waddling Gentoo penguins, a camel in elm, a pink pig, and a bright tropical fish



The clear topcoat resin can be tinted and thickened to acheive varied texture from warty blobs to sharp spiny peaks and in these first attempts seems to adhere well to the wood. The pufferfish really hurts to hold! The great thing about themed exhibitions for me is it forces me out of my habitual way of working and I actually try out the ideas that I have been thinking about, sometimes for years.	September: I made a few noisy and smelly objects for the Sensory Perception show at the Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool. A rattlesnake in Douglas fir and a sole saturated in lemon oil. But I had long been thinking about adding texture on seastars and fish to give them a 'spiky' feel and now have at last experimented with polyester resin.


July : I had been planning a large mermaid for some time and managed to complete her in time for the opening at Primavera, Cambridge. She's not strictly a mermaid, more a maid being created from a fish, a form I have adopted more and more in recent years. Douglas fir fish, Lime body, driftwood hair, rubber nipples.120cms top to tail. On sale at the gallery at £1990. She was later sold at Chelsea Crafts Fair

	For the Sea and Sand exhibition at the Alexander Gallery in Brighton I have returned to some ideas I was playing with a few years ago.I had photographed some seagulls on an old rotted breakwater and used driftwood pieces cut through with perspex as the water level. Ebbtide at Walberswick was the result. It evoked a childhood memory of a farmyard with a glass pond under which the maker had put silver sweet wrappers to indicate ripples.

In nature, whales and dolphins flex in a vertical plane and, although this can be mimicked the results are not successful, they are floppy and difficult to arrange in a typical pose. I have adopted a compromise of articulating as if it were a fish but with a characteristic whale action. This one has a spout made from the workshop broom which looks something like a crest too! This particular design wastes very little wood too because the two halves fit closely together, the head of one half tucking in to the tail of the other.

	May : An unusual and interesting commission from Mr Pirie in New York for a feral pigeon. Mr Pirie has bought many pieces from the Medici Gallery. It was intended for a little girl's birthday, someone who is fond of rats and pigeons because everybody else hates them. There were some difficult decisions to make. Legs or not - as I knew it would be loved and fondled it wasn't such a difficult decision to make in the end.- claws would have got in the way. Pigeons are not particularly 'sculptural' but have amazingly varied markings so I didn't know how much detail to get involved with. In the end , as so often happens a piece of wood decided it for me. It was ash, obtained locally, slightly wormy and rotted. It spoke pigeon as soon as I saw it. I included a little irridesant purple and green around the neck.
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