Railings; doors; banisters; fittings; hooks – they’re everyday things we meet in passing. But even the most modest details have stories to tell. So on day 9 of my artist residency at Tower Gallery, I’ve investigated, in the sketchbook I’ve bound from utility papers and painted with clay grounds. Glimpsed, … Read More
Whether I’m working on design, illustration or visual art, I love delving into the subject matter. So I’ve done a lot of research for my Tower Gallery artist residency, a project about the place itself. In week 4, I’ve been reading the building, literally as I’ve taken a closer look … Read More
Big drawings. How to prepare? The tiny sketchbooks I carry, which I bind from offcuts and scrap are – well – tiny. So, my Tower Gallery residency project being about the building, bringing my love of appropriate materials from my design life I’ve made one big sketchbook from lining paper, … Read More
I draw like a journalist, I’m told – and finding stories has become so instinctive that I only think about it when I explain it to someone else. So it’s been a treat to chat about all things sketching with textile artist Kate Shurety on the last leg of her … Read More
I’m thrilled to be selected for my first ever artist residency, with Tower Gallery, at the extraordinary Memorial Community Church in East London, in a studio built as its projection room. It has views into the church and across to the Royal Docks. Over the Summer I’ll be making some … Read More
It was like playing a harp… On a big sketch on canvas, I’d decided to show the way reeds glitter in the light by way of gold embroidery. Cody Dock is a favourite spot for a screen break tea break – so, tea bags for a colour wash. I had … Read More
You would think that a blogpost on sketches in an exhibition has no place here. But here’s a thing: one is on glassine paper made for packaging; the other takes a technique I use in short pose life drawing and applies it to something else. Both are unpredictable – and … Read More
Translation. That’s an odd word to use for visual communications. But one of the most interesting parts of my work is spotting a connection between two apparently-unrelated things and using it to invite people in to the words, or to an idea. Some of that work is subtle. Some of … Read More
Time travel. It wasn’t what I expected from my free-range Friday. But as I sketch walked my way from an exhibition recce at Springfield Park Café in Hackney, looking for a vantage point I found an information board about the geology of the view. On it was the logo I’d … Read More
