My exhibition with Sally Tyrie last year, Reflections & Revelations, marked the end of a two year project based at Wicken Fen. Sally and I were keen to work together again, but decided against another site-based project. The previous project revolved around a series of shared visits to the Fen while we developed the work separately, in our own studios. This time we have shifted the focus to our studio process. I have worked in Sally’s studio, trialling some of her processes, and she has worked in mine. We have made research visits to places together, but have also visited the same, or oth ..read more

In between periods of working on the Wicken Fen project, over the last year or so I made a group of small works called Thorn.  The making was spread out over the whole year with long gaps between stages and the thinking and process were quite different.   Thorn 5 (Brumaire) Thorn 6 (Noctua) I was interested in making a group of pieces within a limited set of parameters: size, format and colour palette.  In some ways this was quite a formal exercise in composition. The emphasis was on balancing the colour and texture contrast between the plain and printed sectio ..read more

Sally and I de-installed Hidden yesterday with mixed feelings.  It was a beautiful day at Wicken Fen and we enjoyed seeing how the work had been affected by almost a month exposed to the environment of the hides.  We photographed the work before we took it down.  Paper had buckled, wrinkled and come loose.  Rain had left water marks.  Sunlight had faded exposed areas and altered colours.  We found insects sheltering in folds or layers.  And spiders had built their webs around and behind the work. It was beginning the process of becoming part of the fabric of ..read more

This weekend is the last chance to see Reflections & Revelations, my exhibition with Sally Tyrie at Babylon Gallery in Ely.  Sally and I will be there from 2pm on Sunday afternoon (22nd April) and will be taking it down at 4pm.  Hidden, our installations in the hides at Wicken Fen continues until 25th April.   Apparitions 5 The exhibition includes a group of four pieces, Apparitions, which are the largest pieces I have made.  One of the meanings of the word apparition is “an instance of something appearing; the act of becoming visible”.  Perfect for the ..read more

Our exhibition at Babylon Gallery is now open!  Babylon Gallery is a wonderful space and Sally and I are delighted with how it looks.  Sally and I have been working towards this for two years but it wasn't until we started laying work out in the gallery that we really saw our work side by side.  Looking at work in progress spread out on our studio floors is not quite the same!  From the beginning, this project was about two artists working from the same source to produce new work.  In a sense we feel the exhibition represent the outcome of an ongoing "conversation" be ..read more

"Hidden" is now open!  Yesterday Sally and I installed a series of mixed media work in three of the hides on Wicken Fen.   Boardwalk Hide is accessed through the National Trust Visitor Centre.  Charlie’s Hide and East Mere Hide are on the edge of the Mere.  Sally and I are worn out but very happy with how everything looks.  We got very excited taking photographs of the work in situ yesterday evening.  Detail from East Mere Hide Hidden will run until 25 April in parallel with our exhibition at Babylon Gallery in Ely, “Reflections & Revelations”. The ..read more

Sally and I met on Friday to review our work and discuss exhibition preparations.  We spread our work out on the floor and had a critique session.  I can't share pictures - we were too involved to take many anyway - but I am excited to see all our work coming together.  And it was revealing to see both the differences and the similarities in our response to the same source material.   We both still have much to do and our deadlines our almost upon us now.  There is a mass of administrative preparation to do alongside finishing our work.  One of those is publicity ..read more

First, some extracts from my notes:  Reflection.  Noun.  The throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat or sound without absorbing it. Serious thought or consideration An idea about something An image seen in a mirror or shiny surface A thing that is in consequence of something else The physical law of reflection states that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection - if a wave hits the surface at 36°, it will be reflected at 36°. When light waves hit smooth surfaces the waves are reflected uniformly and can form images.  Rough surfaces, such as m ..read more

It’s halfway through February and not long now until Sally and I present the work we have each developed in our Wicken Fen collaboration.  I stopped posting regular updates of our visits to the Fen because they seemed very repetitive.  And there have been a lot of them – at all times of year and in widely varying conditions.  Although many visits seemed to develop their own theme – ice (visit 10); spiders and cobwebs (visit 9) … The purpose of these repeated visits has been to experience the Fen at different times and seasons and allow ourselves to be led in new directions in r ..read more

Although I have not been writing about it here, between visits to Wicken Fen I have been working away on a new group of work.  It is a continuation of last year’s “Between the Lines” series in that it repeats the imagery and themes, but is sufficiently different that I have given it its own title, “A Marginal Space”.  There were several aspects of “Between the Lines” that I wanted to develop further so, over several days in January and early February, I filled a sketchbook with collage experiments.  Working with paper and on a small scale meant that I could work fast and try ou ..read more