Raised in Cornwall, I worked as a carpenter and builder in London before studying art at John Cass and figurative sculpture at Stafford. Living for some years in North Wales, I worked as a sculptor, then moved home and studio to Brynddwynant in the Black Mountains near Hay-on-Wye where I recently gained an MA in Fine Art from the University of Wales, Cardiff.

        Having worked with many techniques and in various mediums, my current interest is the in physicality of carving, both stone and wood. In recent pieces I pose the hard, durability of the material against the soft transience of the subject matter; the fabric of pillows, socks and cloth. Many of these subjects have been used and discarded or forgotten. During the carving process they seem to gain a new independence, a life of their own, a dignity.

To me, the material I use is as much the subject of the work as is the item portrayed. The stone and wood I carve speak of vital components of   our world; the rock beneath our feet, the trees which maintain the air we breathe.

The carved wall pieces have come from my life of working with wood. For me, they function initially at a purely aesthetic level, but each piece is also a portrait, the trace and record of a life lived.Traditionally wood is frame and stretcher; subservient to the painter’s art and unseen. In these pieces the wood itself has become medium, subject and content. It brings to the fore the inherent qualities of this precious material; the layered record of time passing, a record of life on such a different plane from our human one. This work leads us to contemplate the stillness of those slow lives.