Inscapes – the inward essential qualities of observed objects as embodied in artistic, literary expressions.

 

 

 

About Me

I have been a professional portrait artist for over 25 years and providing art/crafts activities to schools, colleges and community groups for over 20 years. Born in St. Kitts, West Indies, I came to England in 1960, along with my brother and two sisters and have lived in Birmingham ever since. Primarily a portrait/wildlife artist, I use most paint mediums including oils, water colours, acrylics, pencil and charcoal.

I pride myself on being a master of most paint mediums and jack of none, including glass paints and clay amongst my repertoire.

However, I have a penchant for pastels, which I believe are ideal for the various skin/fur textures of my human and animal subjects. Most people say that soft pastels are difficult to control, I find them a joy to use.

Completely self-taught I developed my own technique of layering the colours to bring life and depth to my paintings. I also endeavour to paint the eyes with an intensity to capture the soul of the subject – I might stare at the eyes in the photograph for a prolonged period to acquire the essence of the subjects character.

Over the years I have have been approached to carry out a variety of commissions and one of the strangest was to paint a chimney pot. A customer turned up with a chimney pot, inclusive of soot, and placed it on my desk with the request to paint the Ryder Cup on it.

I accepted the challenge and after taking it home and giving it a good shower, I set about painting the ‘Cup’, the The Belfry Golf Club around the rim, three golfers through the ages on the main body and a selection of golf club heads around the base.

It still takes pride of place in his living room with his old golf clubs stood in it.

Wildlife – Not The Wild Life

My love for wildlife and its conservation started as a child watching the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, Survival and On Safari – the precursors of the more recent wildlife programmes. If you remember Michaela Denis from On Safari you will understand one of the reasons that I watched it.

This love still continues today – not for Michaela and I donate part of the proceeds from the sale of my limited edition prints, ‘Joe in Quiet Contemplation’, to conservation. Joe was a western lowland gorilla who resided at Twycross Zoo and sadly passed away in 2008.

All of us have a stake in this our planet and should either take an active part in or support programmes that contribute to maintaining its balance and beauty. Personally, I am deeply concerned about the looming extinction of many of the magnificent animals – tigers, polar bears, rhino’s, cheetahs and the list goes on. Imagine a world without these creatures, plus the smaller less obvious animals, insects and even species of flora that are also under threat, contributing further to disrupt eco-systems that ultimately affect us.

This is why I continue to play my part to hopefully turn the situation around for future generations to enjoy, for example watching a cheetah in full flow chasing an antelope.

Arts Activities

For about the past twenty years I have been providing art and crafts activities to schools, colleges,youth clubs, homes forthe elderly, to people with learning difficulties and to various community groups and events.

The activities include African mask making, glass painting, Aboriginal painting, carnival mask making and pastel portraiture.These workshops have proved very popular, especially during the Black History Month celebrations, to schools and colleges.

Over the years I have become involved with various groups, one being my own – I founded Studio Select, a registered charity, in 2002, to assist disadvantaged artists. It was borne from the realisation of the difficulties that I experienced in my bid to become established as an artist and to use my business acumen to good effect.

Other groups include Radio Rep – a collective of writers/actors who produce radio drama that can be used for educational purposes and in the community. The characters in the plays are usually taken from the community alongside the usual suspects – the writers/actors.

Theatre de Europe is a group of French teachers and local actors, who use drama, dance, music, games and French cuisine to provide an insight into the French language and its culture to schools. More on these projects on their specific pages.

Erdington Arts Forum is a collective of artists from all arts disciplines who meet regularly to discuss projects – including ways of developing joint projects, encourage each other and networking.