AN EXMOOR ARTIST

For as long as I can remember I have always lived a life immersed in the creative world of art and design.  After gaining a 1st Class Hons in Design back in the 1980's, much of it was spent in design for retail furniture and interiors but I continued to paint throughout this time. These days all of my energy is given over to oil painting, in particular landscape and figurative subjects with an emphasis on the Devon landscape, its people and its abundant flora and fauna.

Living in North Devon brings special privileges to those who’s inner light brightens simply by stepping into open countryside. The remoteness of the moors, the intimacy of river carved wooded valleys, the rhythmic wash of wave upon wave on coved beaches. No high-end retreat could heal the spirit like nature in this place heals. It’s why so many visit time and again, drawn like moths to a light of promises, by delightful recollections of previous happy times, of places waiting to be rediscovered once more. 

These Devon and Somerset hills moors and coasts were made and managed by countless generations of local families, as much a part of the landscape as the Exmoor ponies are of Exmoor. It’s not an easy way of life, but it is their way of life, that and the unique beauty of the area keeps them rooted to this place. If you want to meet true North Devon country men and women, go to the livestock market in the heart of South Molton. The ongoing series of figure studies of local farmers is done part in admiration of their determination to live life on their own terms and because, frankly, they make a wonderful subject matter.

The landscapes I produce are studied observations of place, a record of one of those moments when being alive, just then and there at that time, was pure joy.