A Shared Landscape
Landscape with Church (Church in Gascony)
1998 Acrylic on board 60 x 80 cm
Advancing Bush
2003 Oil on canvas
An image of a striking bush in our garden. The idea of this was the dynamic of of the bush advancing on the converging paths in the foreground and the perspective back to the house in the back.
Garden and Camellia
2005 Oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm
Cursus eget nunc scelerisque viverra mauris in aliquam sem. Diam in arcu cursus euismod quis viverra nibh. Eget arcu dictum varius duis at consectetur. Duis ut diam quam nulla porttitor massa. Quisque non tellus orci ac. Nullam eget felis eget nunc. Vel orci porta non pulvinar neque.
St. Paul’s
2006 Pencil on paper
Faucibus scelerisque eleifend donec pretium vulputate sapien nec sagittis aliquam. Id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non. Morbi tristique senectus et netus. Malesuada bibendum arcu vitae elementum curabitur. Rutrum quisque non tellus orci ac auctor. Convallis tellus id interdum velit laoreet id donec. Imperdiet dui accumsan sit amet nulla facilisi morbi tempus.
Pelleas et Melisande in Sicily
2007 Acrylic on board 45 x 60 cm
I saw Debussy’s opera Pelleas et Melisande when I was quite young in a production at ENO and went when it was put on again at Covent Garden a few years ago. The opera opens with two figures lost in a forest. The prince, wandering in the forest away from the castle, and Melisande, enigmatic, wild, adrift in the wood, arriving from a past that is not specified, but understood as inconsolable. Their meeting is a tender evocation of confused sensitivity; she is terrified - “ne me touché pas” (don’t touch me) she repeats in the first amazing motif of Debussy’s score - “ne me touché pas”.
This limbo forest, with its texture of possibility and the drama and fate of meeting I wanted to echo in this painting done in a Sicilian olive grove.
Sicillian Garden
2009 Acrylic on board 45 x 60 cm
Anghiari
2012 Oil on canvas 60 x 42 cm
A painting done in the Italian town of Anghiari during a four month trip there in 2012.
Growth and Form
2015 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 50 cm Private Collection
Noto Antica
2015 Oil on canvas 75 x 123 cm
The ancient city of Noto Antica abandoned into ruins after a great earthquake in the 17th century, lies spread out over a ridge in southern Sicily. A mixture of white limestone, olives and city ruins remains. Pine needles and brilliance.
Olive Series 1
2015 Pencil on paper
Laura plays Bach
2016 Oil on canvas 120 x 90 cm
The cellist Laura Van Der Heijden played a house concert with us during her rehearsal period, played a Bach cello Suite, during which I did a series of drawings – which led to this painting.
Loss in Norway
2017 Oil on canvas 150 x 50 cm
This piece was composed during a walking trip into the Vestre Gausdal mountains in Norway with my friend Chris. It was June, and just in the period between snowmelt and the dark brown tundra of the Norwegian spring. The days are very long and we saw no other people for five days. During the walk I received a message from my mother’s nursing home that her health was deteriorating, and this sense of her immanent loss infused my time in the mountains. My mother died soon after my return and this painting done subsequently, combines the light of the mountains and her farewell.
Arnhem Tryptich 2
2018 Oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm Private Collection
Arnhem Tryptych 2014-20
In 2014 we visited the Arnhem battlefield at Oosterbeck to visit a site of great significance to my father’s wartime; the mission he took on to cross German lines to link with the US allies at Nijmegan. After our return I had enough time to recount my trip to my father before his death in June 2014. The triptych, based on his Arnhem mission, allowed me to meditate on his lifetime journey as well as this experience, and to process his passing.
Arnhem Tryptich 3
2018 Oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm
Arnhem Tryptych 2014-20
In 2014 we visited the Arnhem battlefield at Oosterbeck to visit a site of great significance to my father’s wartime; the mission he took on to cross German lines to link with the US allies at Nijmegan. After our return I had enough time to recount my trip to my father before his death in June 2014. The triptych, based on his Arnhem mission, allowed me to meditate on his lifetime journey as well as this experience, and to process his passing.
On the Burren
2018 Oil on canvas 61 x 122 cm
This piece was composed on the Burren in West Ireland – like nowhere else to experience time and space stretching ahead..
Sunrise Chandratal
2019 Oil on canvas 70 x 100 cm Private Collection
This piece comes from a walking trip in the Spiti Valley in the Himalayas. Up in a cold dark misty morning to see the sacred lake of Chandratal.
Rachel
2020 Oil on canvas 61 x 46 cm Private Collection