Between 1979 and 1984 I was a member of the Oxford Printmakers Cooperative. You see here a mixture of screenprints, etchings and woodcuts. Some of the images are constructed from photographs but others are hand drawn into wax before being etched. Some aquatint is also used in those prints.
My Stones and Mirrors project inspired these drawings. Most of them are single uprights symbolizing solitude and peace, but then I have imagined more complex structures that reflect their surroundings.
Ceannan-tailen (pronounced Kintallen) is small bay on the West Coast of Scotland near to the mouth of West Loch Tarbert. The bay is exposed to the Sound of Jura and the prevailing westerly winds. The sand in the bay is continually shifting such that each year when I returned it always seemed different. I liked to spend much time on this shore observing the tidal world and the photographic pieces here are a result of ideas developed on this beach.
This series of works on paper come from 1982. I was inspired by the notion that the combination of 3 items invokes harmony. I was struck by the phrase from Chinese Literature:
During 1983 and 1984, I made a series of folding wall hanging pieces using rag paper and wood. The imagery on the paper was abstracted from landscapes and was created with oil crayon. I made drawings for these pieces but not all were finally created. Most of the coloured drawings that you see here are on large graph paper with pencil and crayon.
Square paintings based on the inverted triangle and single image within. 1983
In 1981 I focused on creating images that combined the inverted triangle with landscape. I used paper with cut slots to insert a separate element. All of these images use cotton rag paper (Rives) and most are using crayon and pastel. They are all square, in 2 different sizes. The inserted element indicates a detail observed in the landscape (sea, sky, land etc).
These Folding Pieces are evolved from a perception of change and movement in the landscape. My early kinetic pieces, mirror works, and long study of megalithic sites in the landscape have led me to develop structures that reflect this change and movement. I am is concerned with the way in which horizons, mountains, and sea unfold and change, recede and converge with the passage of the onlooker - the eye travels across the landscape and there is no fixed viewpoint.
My work is concerned with TIME as well as SPACE. I invite the spectator to rotate the moveable elements and then observe the changes in the geometry as the piece gradually returns to its static form. I try to give an awareness of cyclical time rather than linear or sequential time. I use component parts in the construction o these Sculptures as a way to imply potential change.
These drawings were a direct development from the Turning Pieces, wall pieces. Shapes are chosen and then rotated to different positions in the drawing.
Three Segments was a kinetic sculpture built for the John Radcliffe Hospital in 1987-88. The sculpture was positioned on the roundabout adjacent to the entrances to the main hospital and the maternity hospital.
Solentris was a kinetic sculpture created for the Southampton General Hospital in 1986-7. The sculpture consisted of three triangles made from aluminium mast section and welded together at the corners. Each triangle was connected through a steel cable via bearings. They were alternated so that the centre triangle was inverted. They were balanced so as to rotate randomly about the cable.
An exhibition of Turning Pieces at the Upstairs Gallery, Cowley Road, Oxford. 1985
An exhibition of Folding Pieces at the Axiom Centre for the Arts, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. August 1984
An exhibition of Folding Pieces at the Bradford University Gallery, 1984
As part of the Oxford Art Group, these works were exhibited in Leiden alongside 5 other Oxford based artists.
An exhibition of Folding and Turning Pieces at Galeri Lang, Målmo, in Sweden. August 1984
