A catalogue of my previous pieces and series
Click thumbnail for larger image
Collected Works (2021)
Collected Works (2019-2020)
My personal work in 2019 has been somewhat varied, and of a smaller scale, necessitated by studio constraints and commissioned work. Figuration has continued to play a role; as with “Jazz Night” and “Could we be Heroes?”, along with film references; and some more straightforward landscape pieces in Acrylics. “Onsen” expressed an interest in Japanese culture and aesthetics, as well as in the therapeutics of Spas, retreats and the cross-cultural practices of bathing and thermal therapies. It is a theme on which I may expand in future pieces
Entropy (2018)
Entropy is my most current series of paintings; and I consider it unfinished at present. The work so far consists of three paintings which expand on themes in my previous series; but concentrate on the idea of a pictorial scene which captures elements of beauty, decay and mortality. While I have taken a creative break to focus on other projects, I very much intend to return to the series; and explore more of these forgotten, haunting spaces, many of which have a certain ironic quality I find very appealing.
Misfits and Midways (2017)
This Series, 'Misfits and Midways' was completed Fall and Winter of 2017-2018, and parts of the series were exhibited at Dee Dee’s Ice Cream shop in Halifax, with one piece featured in the SPARK! Exhibition of work at the Teichert Gallery in Halifax Nova Scotia. The Series engages with a number of themes including, nostalgia, memory, decay and the passage of time. My goal, as it evolved, was to create a series of uncanny, yet beautiful and compelling images of unusual characters and scenes; all derived from black and white photographs ranging from the late 1800’s to the 1960’s.
The New York Series (2017)
This was series of 3 paintings I completed based on a wonderful trip to Manhattan in 2017. The paintings are all based on original photographs taken by myself and include my impressions and reflections on this truly magnificent city and it’s cultural legacy.
Solitudes (2017)
Solitudes was a short series of landscape pieces I completed in 2017, incorporating both my own and appropriated photographic material. As the title suggests the series is a meditation on solitude and introspection in a modern landscape; and was influenced both by the work of the German Romanticists and more recent painters like Peter Doig.
Collected Works (2015-2018)
Mythos (2014)
In my first series “Mythos” I explored images from Greek myths. The work is much more graphic than later pieces but numerous elements still remain, for instance, an interest in history; in trees especially and in the dichotomy between depth and flatness.
Between 2015 and 2017 I explored a number of approaches to work, ranging to re-purposed black and white photographs, still-life installations, political allegory and surrealism. Throughout is a continued interest in landscape, colour and space. My work also included a reproduction of a Van Gogh; one of my favorite pieces by this beloved artist and a source of personal inspiration.
Early Acrylics (2011-2014)
My early acrylic work was quite varied, but there is a lively colour, an interest and history and in night scenes which would carry into my later work. I especially enjoyed the mural I was commissioned to do in 2014; and the cherry blossom scene in many ways anticipates more recent work in oil.
Drawings (2014 - 2016)
This selection of drawings is a compilation of my best work during the period of 2014 -2016, wherein I completed a number of courses in figurative and advanced drawing. The pieces reflect a range of drawing mediums including(but not limited to) compressed charcoal, conté and various varieties of paper. The most experimental piece I composed was a commemorative depiction of the First World War. I completed the piece using paint thinner and boot polish purchased at an Army-Navy store, and sought to emulate the tropes and styles that appeared in “Trench Art” and in the subsequent German Expressionist movement.
Sculptures and Constructs
These varied sculptures and constructs represent work I was fortunate enough to create during my tenure at NSCAD. While I am not primarily a sculptor, I did enjoy bringing aspects painting into a three-dimensional form. Again, there is a mix of ironic humor and melancholic beauty strived for in these works. In “Iphone 0” and in “The Dr. Ben Carson Grain Pyramids” I played with political satire an absurdity in plaster forms. My final project in sculpting was an attempt to bring forth a beautiful and irreverent tree in metal. Early concept work in copper wire lead to a much more involved project that utilized many different metallic components and processes. In the end I produced a life-sized complete work that could be assembled and disassembled easily with no welded pieces. The Inspiration for a collapsible sculpture was due both to the nature of the materials involved and my earlier experience designing and constructing a modular dragonfly from balsa wood.
