Veiw from the steading to Ardtonish Point

The Two Crows

As I was walking all alone,
I heard two crows (or ravens) making a moan;
One said to the other,
"Where shall we go and dine today?"

"In behind that old turf wall,
I sense there lies a newly slain knight;
And nobody knows that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound and his lady fair."

"His hound is to the hunting gone,
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl home,
His lady's has taken another mate,
So we may make our dinner sweet."

"You will sit on his white neck-bone,
And I'll peck out his pretty blue eyes;
With one lock of his golden hair
We'll thatch our nest when it grows bare."

"Many a one for him is moaning,
But nobody will know where he is gone;
Over his white bones, when they are bare,
The wind will blow for evermore."

Quick now, here, now, always

In this drawing I wanted to capture the moment when your foot comes down on the fir cones and sticks, to encapsulate the noise of the crunch and the smell of the woods, in the dappled light. I am interested in the repeating sculptural patterns of the fir cones as they work across the picture plane. 

The title comes from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, which speaks of being  in the moment, however there is a paradox in this drawing as the way in which I executed the drawing was very laborious and so I had many hours of dream time thinking of the past, present and future. Four Quartets discusses the patterns of life that man is destined to endlessly repeat. The drawing further echoes T.S. Eliot’s poem as the depiction of the rotting fir cones symbolizes the death, life, and rejuvenation of each generation as the seed from the cone is germinated.

elements of yorkshire

Molly’s sucking stones

Molly’s sucking stones 

The image is drawn on watercolour paper in rapidograph ink and measures 110 cm x 80 cm approx. framed landscape. £ 650.00

The drawing is composed of  four stones drawn objectively. As the stone is repeated across the picture plain,  a rhythm begins to emerge, positive and negative shapes juxtapose one another and become of equal importance The title is taken from Beckett’s trilogy, Molly and alludes to Molly  passing a sucking stone from one pocket to the next whilst chanting in much the same way as a rosary or islamic prayer.The drawing is also concerned with the passing of time and how we observe and comprehend things at different times:is the first observation the best or the fifty first? Is the larger more detailed drawing truer to the object or the drawing done life size but lacking detail? what effect does mood, tiredness, compositional constraints have on the picture?

Veiw from Thurish

A3 coloured limited edition print of 25 (approx. 10 remaining) £40.00 unframed.

Thurish is situated at the top of Keighley gate and depicts the panorama from the opposite side of the hill from Top Withens. The steep valley is called Crimshaw and leads into the Calder Valley. In the middle distance shown through a halo of light is the church spire in Heptonstall final resting place of Sylvia Plath. In the far distance lies Studley Pike a folly that has dominated the Calder valley since post Napoleonic times. The essence of the drawing is the depiction of the British pastoral landscape with a tip of the hat to Samuel Palmer. 

Seven Stones

Seven Stones

The image is drawn on watercolour paper in rapidograph ink and measures 140 cm x 101 cm approx. framed landscape. £ 1250.00

This piece of work belongs to the Stones series of drawings.

Repetition and observation are the key to the working method  

Clearly time remains a prevalent issue as some of the stones referred to are chalk which on handling disintegrate and turn to dust. 

Seven has been regarded as a powerful number for centuries with  resonance through out all cultures.

Central to this work is the idea that stone being of the earth possesses strong earthly powers. By linking Molly’s fetish for handling and sucking stones with the repetion of the magic number seven multiplied by seven multiplied by seven suggests a Pandora’s box of good, evil and hope, 

There are approximately ten more drawings in the Stones series of similar size and media both framed and unframed.