About me!

‘Rockhopper Hop!’

I am an artist who loves painting in lovely North Wales.  I  paint birds, mostly in oils on hand stretched canvas – birds are an endless source of interest and fascination, and I am particularly inspired by the works of Eric Ennion, who said that the essential motive in painting birds was not to portray the species in general but to capture the essence of ‘that particular and individual bird alive before you while you sketch’.  I have travelled to the Arctic, Senegal and recently the Falkland Islands sketching and photographing birds.

A bird icon from my exhibition, a hinged work – this is the inside

And this is the front!

In April I was supposed to be taking part in pop-up exhibition at the lovely Plas Bodfa, an old country house in Anglesey. I worked hard on creating an installation, which unfortunately had to be postponed at the last minute due to the dreaded coronavirus. Hopefully it will take place later in the year, but in the meantime, the wonderful Crumps Barn Studio have made a video of what might have been. Click here to watch it on vimeo, but here are some stills from it:

Stargazing peacock, oil on Himalayan rag paper, A1 size

 

Stargazing gannet and toucan, oil on Himalayan rag paper

What it might look like!!

 

My book ‘Little Terns and Sea Holly’, a diary based on several years’ observation of the Nature Reserve at Gronant Dunes, Prestatyn, where Little Terns nest, has just been published by Penlan Publishing (click here for link!).   This follows the tiny birds from migration from West Africa, through courtship, nesting, bringing up babies, and return home.  I even followed them to Senegal, where they overwinter among the mangrove swamps.  This is one of the illustrations for the book:

Little Tern, watercolour

Two of my paintings were selected for the Open Exhibition at the Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, this year.

Academically speaking, I have an MA in European Studies and the Postgraduate Diploma in Translation Studies, and have written one book of historical research, ‘The City of Ottawa: the story of a sailing ship’, for which I made a preliminary translation into French: this has just been published by Éditions GID in Quebec as ‘Le City of Ottawa: l’histoire d’un grand voilier’.  I am available for freelance French – English translating.

Check out their website here:

www.leseditionsgid.com

See the book page for details of how to buy these books!

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Follow me on Instagram here.