Born Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1968

Education

1972-79 Framlingham Primary School, Suffolk
1979-86 Woodbridge School, Suffolk
1987-90 University of Oxford (BA Zoology)
1995-98 Life Drawing at Morley College, London

I took up painting full time in 1994, having studied the sciences at school and university. My first step into the arts was to buy a set of wood chisels at a local agricultural sale in Suffolk. This led into landscape drawing and painting. Using earth as a pigment and plants as tools felt like the most natural way to represent landscape, and this is still my belief today. Earth and water form the landscape. They are my passions.

In 1995 I moved to London, where I was introduced to Maggi Hambling. I studied life drawing and painting with her for three years at Morley College near Waterloo. It was through her that I met Stephen Lacey, then of Reed's Wharf Gallery, who gave me my first solo exhibition in 1995. This was a large series of earthpaintings from East Suffolk - from the Alde and sticky clay uplands around Great Glemham. Since then I have worked along the Thames, in Sussex, Essex, Wales and New Zealand. I returned to Suffolk in 2001 and now live in the upper reaches of the Alde Valley.

I regard drawing as an essential practice. As part of my early learning, I spent a year working blind, looking only at the subject and never at the paper. Over time, I found that my hand and eyes slowly came together, giving images that were filtered by feelings rather than the mind. It is my belief that drawings should have an energy and life of their own, sometimes soft, other times quick or direct. As a practice, it is all about making marks. When it works and the marks come together it is like a dance. And that is the joy.

Exhibitions


Solo

2003 Animals in the Landscape, Redfern Gallery, London
2001 Chappel Galleries, Essex
1999 Woodfall Street, London (Home Show)
1997 Pump House Gallery, Battersea London
1996 Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk
1995 Reed's Wharf Gallery, Shad Thames, London; Aldeburgh Cinema Gallery


Group

2003 Festival Exhibition, Strand Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk; Stanny House Farm, Iken Suffolk (Red Cross); Northcote Gallery, Northcote Road, London
2002 Blyth Spirit, Chappell Galleries, Essex; Birds, Strand Gallery, Aldeburgh; Animals, North House Gallery, Manningtree, Essex; Affordable Art Fair, Northcote Gallery, Battersea, London
2001 Mall Galleries, London, British Institute for Painters in Watercolour; North House Gallery, Essex; Letham Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2000 Mall Galleries, London, British Institute for Painters in Watercolour; Affordable Art Fair, Northcote Gallery, Battersea, London
1999 A River Runs through It, Pump House Gallery, Battersea, London; Drawings for All, Gainsborough's House, Suffolk
1998 Aldeburgh 100, Suffolk; Maggi Hambling's Students, Sotheby's, London; Christies, London (Cystic Fibrosis)
1997 Open Studios, Battersea, London
1996 Cross Currents, Barbican Centre (Reed's Wharf Gallery); Mall Galleries, London (Bayer Earth Art Prize)

Reviews

Contemporary Art Magazine, Farmer's Weekly, Art Review, East Anglian Daily Times, The Independent, What's on in London, The Essex Journal, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Radio 3, London News Talk.

Collections

The Hiscox Collection and various private collections

The artist with his mud paintings