Over the next few months I will be producing a selection of blog posts which will give an insight into my studio practice and day to day workings in the Hambledon studio.
It is always interesting to have the opportunity to look at an artist's sketchbooks, gaining a glimpse into how their creative mind works and equally, I always find it fascinating to see into artists studio spaces and get an insight to how they work.
My wee studio bathed in afternoon sunshine
So, what makes my studio tick?
One of the most noticeable features of my workspace is the amount of books that live in the space. I often joke that the studio should be renamed the library!
A small selection of the studio bookshelves
Literature has played a key role throughout my artistic career and still does in my everyday creative process. Whether it is working in collaboration with writers or on work directly or indirectly influenced by poetry or prose, the influence of the written word is never far from my day to day practice.
I have been very fortunate over the last twenty year to have been given the opportunity to work with many wonderful poets, and their work has added and enhanced greatly my personal understanding of the creative process and has taken me on many wonderful journeys, both real and imaginary.
From flights of fancy around far flung islands, to interpreting the psyche of man and beasts, these journeys have been a wonderful experience for me both as an artist and self-confessed poetry junkie!
'Hare' from Les Animots - A Human Bestiary, with Gordon Meade, Cultured Llama Press, 2015
I am currently working on new collaboration projects with Donald S. Murray, Isobel Dixon, and Gordon Meade. Look out for future posts and features about the new work on The Net Mender.