Over the Tops to Howarth

I went to art school in Aberdeen in the early 60s and then won a national scholarship to work in fashion houses in Paris, Milan and Florence. I then worked in various art schools from Falmouth to Salford University. By chance whilst at Shrewsbury School of Art  I acquired a set of old chisels which started me carving.
 
I am a self-taught carver (I am still hopeless at sharpening chisels!), however working in wood feels perfectly natural and allows me to express my ideas in a reasonably unique way.
 
I have exhibited widely in galleries such as Saatchi Gallery, London; Centrespace, Bristol; Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution; Portico Gallery, Manchester; Weston Park, Shropshire; Cartwright Gallery, Bradford; Tricycle Theatre, London; Salford Art Gallery; Bury Art Gallery; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.

My relief carvings are stories about my life - the people, places and memories that influence me and mean much to me. Most carvings incorporate a range of these within the one picture - Kintore (near Aberdeen) my small home village, my time in Italy and also my partner's family's home in Mondov?, Italy, my present home in Frome and where I might have been yesterday. I often use, to me, iconic buildings such as Kintore Town Hall (which I lived  opposite for most of my childhood), Palazzo Vecchio bell tower in Florence and its  northern near twin Bradford Town Hall clock tower, the black and white checkerboard marble floor of Aberdeen Art Gallery, and since moving to Somerset, images of the South West such as the giant chalk figures and standing stones.

I use the re-occurring themes of the window as an escape/route to another life and a frame for memories; the checkerboard floor with the tailor's dummies (which were in the textile studios and the fashion houses in which I studied); the use of other rooms/views to tell a story which I found in so many beautiful early renaissance alter pieces. These devices all come together and include a view of the hills on the road to Howarth which I used to regularly travel along past and present together.

Lime Wood

30.5x37x7.5cm