Odd Bits Of Work

Bird Vortex Procrastination was the name of the game during the best part of May and the beginning of June, compounded by the continuing saga of failing hard drives and agonising about the AR works I need to make for the Digitalism section of the British Art Fair in September. I had a CAA Masterclass with Rebekah Tolley and she very kindly asked me to exhibit with the 5th Plinth AR…

Away with the birds Another New Studio ‘a murder’ 10/04/26 In April I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get cloud anchors to work in Meadow  and finding a series of issues. Eventually I resorted to using image tracking which I can make work perfectly well. To do what I want with ‘a murder’ is going to take a lot of resolution. I removed the nest from the sculpture and added a series of…

The shapes Birds make in the air Another New Studio I’ve spent the past six weeks working with the idea of birds and the shapes birds make in the air. Bird Wash Feb 2026 Firstly I finished ‘Bird Wash’. Drawing Feb 26 I started drawing larger with sheets made from A1 cartridge paper. ‘Shapes birds make in the air’ 3,4,5 and 5 A1 in progress ‘The shapes birds make in the air 2 (large)’ Feb…

More Birds Another New Studio Having thought a lot about how and why I make work I came up with a rudimentary explanation. The process can be contrasted with an everyday activity like walking to work. If you do it a lot it can fall into a category of activity that fades from your consciousness. You complete it automatically because you start with an aim, know how to get there and you’ve done it…

Birds Another New Studio Two Crows November 25 One of the joys of the garden are the birds that I feed each day. I regularly see fifteen to twenty Pigeons, they gather on the neighbouring chimneys waiting for me to bring the food to the bird table at eight thirty each morning. While they are there, and before and after their arrival and departure, the smaller birds mill around the table, Hedge…

Explaining There is a fundamental problem with explaining your work to people in most contexts. The meaning you give in the particular moment would be a different meaning in any another. I think I mean I’m still struggling with the idea of praxis because it seems that the recognition of it is contingent. In any case I am just about to complete another CAA course, this one a four week ‘crit’…

Birds and Trees November has been all about birds and trees, mostly birds, mixed in with a lot of preparation for Open Studios on the last weekend of the month. After thinking about birds and trees last month I started to draw birds. ‘Scattering’ (geese) 10/11/25 This drawing of geese seemed the appropriate way to complete the first of the big drawings I laid backgrounds for in the last week. I…

Two Trees Sculpture Two Trees Sculpture 03/10/25 I started the companion piece, the larger tree, at the beginning of October. The process, as I noted last month demands that each section be dry before you can move on to the next one. This lends itself to my working pattern of being in the studio every other day. The link to the drawings is essentially only the notion of working on the figures as…

Two Trees Drawings tickhill_road_280219_010825 This drawing comes directly from the sketchbook in last months post Tickhill Road 28/02/2019. I photographed this on the 1st September after several stages involving the removing and readding the central tree. The orb on the right is a vestige of the one on the left, an after image if you will. The point about these drawings is that the language…

I spent the best part of the beginning of the month refining ‘woolgathering’ and intermittently thinking it was finished and that I needed to do more to it. By the end of the month it looked like this, but I’ve decided I need to add another scene and I’ve refined the transitions. Then I move on to the Tickhill Road Drawings. Acrobats August 4th 2025 I made this drawing after I’d completed the…

Property “That property in land and liberty among men, in a state of nature, ought to be equal, few, one would fain hope, would be foolish enough to deny. Therefore, taking this to be granted, the country of any people, in a native state, is properly their common, in which each of them has an equal property, with free liberty to sustain himself and connections with the animals, fruits and other…

Hackwork Another New Studio (although its getting old now) This last month was not nearly as frustrating as last month but hasn’t involved a lot of development of theory. Beginning with the completion of the ‘Circus Horse Model’ with the acrobat. Circus Horse 09 06 2025 Tumbler 020 06 2025 Tumbler 04 06 2025 Tumbler 06 06 2025 Tumbler 09 06 2025 Tumbler 18 06 2025 Tumber Detail 20 06 2025 Tumbler…

Massive Doubt Another New Studio ‘You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything. The canvas has an idiotic stare, and mesmerizes some painters so that they turn into idiots themselves.’ Vincent Van Gogh, letter to Theo from October 2, 1884. ‘Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop…

MASS OBSERVATION DIARY 12 May 2025 Introduction I am a 65 year old Male, retired, and I live in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. I’m married and have siblings who live in Lancashire, close to my Mother and Germany. I worked in Further and Higher Education ending my career after a succession of jobs ass Head of Department. Since retirement I have continued to make Art because that is what I do and I…

The Burial of the Dead Another New Studio ‘April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.’ TS Eliot: The Waste Land  April has been a great big steaming waste of time. Everything I’ve tried has turned out badly and in the end I’ve had to put everything away and start again. I ended the month reading an article…

Open Studio Dark Fox Another New Studio I had around 30 visitors on Saturday and the 20 more on Sunday. Lots of questions and compliments but no sales. Between times I worked up the fox drawing and updated my online store, as well as stretching some paper and starting a new drawing. Dark Fox 11:11 Dark Fox 12:23 Dark Fox 13:53 Dark Fox 14:08 Dark Fox 14:46 Dark Fox 15:52 On Sunday morning I…

Quicksand Another New Studio There is a way in which applying for funding sucks the life out of you and makes you perceive your practice as lacking any kind of progress. A lot of applications, anything in ACE projects or DYCP and most other that arrive without fanfare require a well defined project that hasn’t been started yet and won’t be started until the grant is approved. The problem with…