A bit late I admit, but it has been quite a busy start to the year. I have moved on from the level 2 course to the HNC - quite a jump, but things seem to be going well so far.
Our first piece looked at the idea of ready-made objects as art, leading on from Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, and I chose to focus on unwanted objects, specifically in the form of rubbish! When you tell people you are doing a Fine Art course, I am sure the image that comes to their mind is NOT one of picking up, sorting, washing and using about 3 black bags full of litter to create a sculpture, but that is what I have been doing.
This project is almost finished, but I already have some ideas in development for the next unit, so keep watching this space for an update.

Lots of good news over the last few weeks too;
A commission for public art work for Keswick Youth Hostel - I'll let you know what is going on display and when so hopefully you can go see some of it!
Got my place on the HNC course for September, so another 3 years (at least) of being an Art student - very happy (and relieved) about that one
Invited to submit work for the C-Art exhibition at college 
The College art department have the opening show at the Beacon in Whitehaven next month, so hopefully another opportunity for you to come and see my work on public display...

Hi there,
I've been pretty busy lately, but managed to make time today to update the site and post a blog entry at last. Lots of new pieces added, so let me know what you think of them please.
I am particularly proud of the minifig pictures inspired by the work of Andrew Whyte (google "Lego photographer" to see some of his pictures - they are really good!) I spent a profitable day out in the Lakes taking these - and discovered that laying on the edge of a lake taking close-ups of Lego figures people can hardly see is a good way to get the beach to yourself!
I've also been asked to take some more photos round college as a bit of a spoof on the new college publicity photos, so watch out for the "Student Eye" after the Easter break! I'll post the good ones here too. 
 

The latest additions to the Christmas card linocutting range are now on the site. Decided to recut the robin on Sunday since the latest print run looked as though it only had one leg - the downside of using the soft-cut Lino I guess. Also had my first casualty, in the form of a cut finger - nothing visible apart from quite a lot of blood, so I am now sporting a taped on plaster until it heals a bit. The irony is that I had just swapped from cutting "free-form" on the table to using the bench hook - third cut, blade hops over the edge and into my finger...
But no great harm done, not a finger I use a lot, so more designs to come soon...

Well,this is my first linocut design - ready for making Christmas cards for Mum and I. It was maybe a little bit ambitious to start with outlines rather than a block shape, but I am really pleased with the final prints. So if you get one this year, it will be a limited print run (I will even number them!) so when I am famous in years to come you can sell it on eBay :-)

First ever blog - another first for the year to add to my list.
Having given up a well-paid professional career to go back to college as an art student, I thought this might be a good way to let the world know how it is going. So far, I would say the answer is "really rather well", but we will see when the money starts to run out - I never enjoyed that part of being a student.
I know that some of my friends are skeptical about this decision - especially to do art - but that there are also quite a lot of them who would love to be where I am right now. So this site is also designed to provide an opportunity for them to see (and comment on) what I have been doing.