I OFTEN DESCRIBE MYSELF as a silhouettist rather than as an artist. The distinction is more nuanced than it sounds. Everything about my art practice connects back to silhouettes: the subjects, the techniques, or both.
Over many years I’ve explored the silhouette form through every medium I could find: building portraits from string or ruled straight lines, reproducing loose pencil drawings in the unforgiving medium of paper cutting, placing landscapes and life studies within profile outlines, working in pencil, watercolour and oil. Each experiment has generated its own body of work, and each body of work has fed back into the silhouettes themselves.
Mays Barn
This old Barn is my studio, retreat and place to think. It’s where the endless drawing, painting and paper cutting happens. For me, this is the work that makes the silhouettes possible; without my ongoing studio practice, I don’t believe the silhouettes could exist.
Mays Barn is one end of what was once a much longer, typical Berkshire barn, probably once used as a cow shed. I feel very lucky to have such an agricultural remnant at the bottom of my garden. It’s also the setting for the opening and closing scenes of Silhouette Secrets, the documentary film I presented about the history of the art, and my journey to break the world speed-cutting record.
You can read more about my research into the history of this odd building on my blog.
The Caversham Arts Trail
Once a year I open Mays Barn to the public as part of the Caversham Arts Trail. This is the best opportunity to both see my latest work in person, and to visit the studio itself. The Trail takes place on the middle two weekends of May each year.
If you’d like to be notified about next year’s Trail and other opportunities to see my work in exhibition, please sign up to my newsletter.
Studio Projects
These blog posts describe a selection of recent projects about my fine-art practice, all of which can be seen in the galleries:
Drawing with Scissors at Parallax
I’M TAKING A NEW DEPARTURE next week in taking a stand at the Parallax Art Fair. It takes place at the Old Town Hall, on the Kings Rd in Chelsea, on Saturday 28th February and…
Jane Austen Silhouettes at One Aldwych
WHEN PEOPLE ASK when silhouettes were most popular I usually answer “think Jane Austen”. It conjures up the right period! So it seems appropriate that this Xmas season, as we celebrate her 250th birthday (she…
Portraits of Rakugo
HERE’S AN ARTISTIC QUESTION: can I cut a portrait of storytelling in action? I don’t mean cutting a portrait of the story teller (I know I can do that) but somehow to capture the act…
Masked Portrait Paper Cuttings
THROUGHOUT LOCKDOWN the mask struck me as a potent symbol of those extraordinary times. I’ve always been fascinated by masks; Venetian masked balls are amongst my favourite kind of event to work at. Yet the…
A Reluctant Paper Cutter
PAPER CUTTING is not what I do. Everybody assumes I love paper cutting, and given that most people meet me wielding scissors at a party it’s quite understandable. I do, after all cut paper! Despite…
Mays Barn 2020 Studio Catalogue
MY 2020 STUDIO CATALOGUE has now been launched, featuring paintings and drawings from last year. For me, 2019 was an interesting year. It started with a much-needed and long-overdue studio clearout, in which I simply…
The Galleries
My website galleries are organised by project. Each is a distinct body of work, connected by the same underlying obsession with silhouettes and the profile form.
Works Available
Many works shown in the galleries are available to collectors, either framed or unframed. If you’d like to enquire about a specific piece, discuss prices, or arrange a studio visit (either in person or via video link) please get in touch.
