Easter Still-life with Dijon Penitents Oil • 61x76cm
Two penitents strain to support the still-life table. The third looks
up contemplating the meaning of the bird, orchid and sacrament.
It is the night of the crucifixion. All elements of the composition
focus on this event, enacted under the hovering moon.
Ceramics from Sicily Oil • 61x76cm
Each object and surface vibrates with subtle tonal variations. Lowering
sunlight casts long shadows across the landscape and still-life providing
a vertical grid which unifies this strong composition. The ceramics were purchased in the ancient hilltop town of Taormina which also provides
the source for the architectural elements.
Night Visitor, Sicily Oil • 54x60cm
The moonlit stillness of the Mediterranean sea provides the backdrop for this masterly painting. The offset triangulation of the almost subliminal compositional grid has its base in the curtains and its apex in the moon. This subtle compositional format underpins the luscious use of colour and the suggested dramatic narrative. The palpable flapping of the blackbird’s wings as it balances on the dish, is the only movement in the tranquillity of the moonlit Sicilian night.
Spring Flowers Oil • 71x63.5cm
The linear rhythms flowing through the picture move the image towards abstraction and impart a sense of life and growth to the flowers. Objects, flowers and table are perfectly juxtaposed in a sea of subtle tonal and chromatic complexity that provides an endless variety of visual enjoyment.
Spring Still-life, Devon Oil • 61x61cm
All the joy and sunlit awakening of Spring is captured in this
Devon still-life. The tulips are almost dancing as they swirl the
eye around the composition, out into the landscape and back
again. The image is imbued with the happiness of life and nature.
Sea Shore Still-life Oil • 61x61cm
Repeated curving edges and shapes flow from the boats through
to the still-life and back again. Lines and shapes echo each other
across the image whilst the subtle diagonals provide a horizontal/
vertical grid which forms the underpinning for this satisfying
composition. The rhythms of the composition, together with the
harmonious colour and tactile paint surface, give this painting a
quality analogous to the melodic flow and harmonies of music.
The whole image conjures up a real sense of the atmosphere,
smell and quiet sounds of the sea shore.
The Landscape Wakes, Menerbes Provence, No.2
Oil • 61x61cm
The rendering of the soft morning light and beautiful colour harmonies give this painting a quality of quiet, elemental poetry. Subtle chromatic colour changes move the eye around the image,
the saturated red of the left hand anemone providing the colour
focal point. As the light filters across the landscape we sense
the almost palpable silence of an early morning awakening.
Olives (detail) Oil • 68.5x51cm
Inspired by a journey through the vast olive orchards of Spain, this image celebrates the bountiful olive. The eye passes across the still-life of dishes, jug and bottles of olive oil, into the olive orchard basking in the unrelenting heat of the Spanish sunshine.
White Dawn Bird (detail) Oil • 46x38cm
In the half light of a Sicilian Easter Day dawn, the white bird flutters as it descends to alight at the edge of the bowl of fruit. It carries a leaf echoing an image on the painted ceramic plate. In the bowl an egg is cracking as new life strains to free itself and enter the world.
Winter Sunlight Oil • 46x46cm
Warming winter sunshine filters through orchard trees and into the room. The curving line of the table, the tilted window and the placing of objects combine to provide a calm and satisfying composition which holds the luscious, yet subtle, contrasts of warm and cool colours.
End Game Oil • 61x61cm
In one more move check-mate is possible. Moonlight shines, Icarus falls into the sea. As Breughel shows us and Auden tells us –
“...how everything turns away..and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen something amazing...sailed calmly on”. The pathetic monkey begs from the exotic bird – “and my Goddess will pass on to where the temple elephant might have gone”. The end game must run its course.
Tuscany Still-life, No.2 (detail) Oil • 51x40.5cm
Each object and surface is perfectly placed and delineated in this splendid compositional organisation. The handling of glazes and impasto provide a rich and varied surface texture. These qualities, combined with the subtle nuances of greys, contrasting with the
light and colour of the house and landscape, make this picture a painterly triumph.
