1965          Born and raised in Highlands of Scotland

1977          Formal introduction to Keltic art by secondary school teacher.

Inverness Royal Academy. Scotland

1978-89     Fine line drawing and painting of Keltic symbolism.

Posters, murals, backdrops, vehicles and tattoos.

Exhibitions in Edinburgh and Inverness.

Attended Aberdeen School of Art for 1 year and dropped out.

First clay sculptures.

1990-92     Paintings in Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand

1992-94     Living in Germany. Painting and metalwork.

Exhibitions throughout Hannover region.

Introduction to metal craft and blacksmithing by Master Jurgen Helmer, Brelingen.

1996-99    Introduction to stone masonry by master Uwe Spickermann

Large sculpture projects in steel, stone, wood, glass and ceramics

            Collaboration works with potter Ute Jensen

Special exhibition at the Keltic house built by Ferdinand Eichwede (1879-1911, Architect and Keltic revivalist).

Founder of annual chainsaw symposium at Langenhagen

Book illustrations, compact disc cover designs, short documentary on

German Television.

1999          Moved to New Zealand permanently

Continue exhibitions in Germany through Gallery ‘Dino Da Vinci’

2000          Invited to ‘Art in the Park’ International Stone Symposium, Christchurch

Commissioned by Greymouth Council for six 10m sculptures on waterfront.

2001-06    Organised Hokitika Beachfront Symposium, wood and stone

Worked on long term project, design and build large house –interior, exterior carving, landscaping, glass and metal work, large mural work on ceilings.

Attended various stone carving symposia, notably ‘Te Kupenga’, international hard stone symposia in New Plymouth 2004, 2006

Small documentary film on carving

Public commission – Rangiora Art Council

 2007          Participant in ‘Out of the Rain’ exhibition, 33 Westcoast artist in

Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth and Centre of Contemporary Art, ChCh

      2008          5 ton polished andesite sculpture, public display, New Plymouth

2m female torso, Mt Somers Symposium

7 month travels in Europe, bronze age studies in various national museums, notably Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Paris.

Work on restoration project, 11th century castle, Bordeaux, France

Work under guidance of master mason Uwe Spiekermann, realism, naturalism and casting techniques, Hannover, Germany

2009                    Winner of Department of Conservation Environmental Prize, Hokitika

2010                    Commissioned by St Mary's School, Hokitika for 5 playground sculptures

Further studies of casting techniques and armature construction for figurines and busts

2010                    Public sculpture, Caroline Bay Park, Timaru, black marble sphere

Commisioned by Kronauer Architects and Engineers, Germany for

2m serpentine stone sculpture

2011                    4 ton granit public sculpture for Lions Club Hokitika

Annual participant in Ellerslie Flower Show

2012                    Organized international hard stone symposium in Hokitika

Solo Exhibition at Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth

2013                    Involved in setting up national and international multicultural jade symposium

 

 

Artist statement:

 

My Keltic birthplace , the Highlands of Scotland, an area full of Pictish - Keltic stonework and archeaology attuned my young hands and psyche towards creative processes for unveiling the essential forms that bless our everyday existence.

My schoolbook doodles and patterns attracted the attentions of my art teacher and so at age 12 I was introduced to the book 'Keltic Art - Methods of Construction' by George Bain, coincidentally Mr Bain had taught in my school 50 years previous (a revivalist and promoter of Keltic Art).

 

My vocation then is to bring these patterns and symbols to modern life and convey there much needed information. The origin, context and meaning of this art fills books, so I shall reduce it to the core :

          WATER

Water and all her creations. From Geo-Biology to the facets of snow crystals. From the lobes and folds of plant buds to the main three rings left by every raindrop on a pond. - Patterns within life itself.

 

' Theory may inform but practice convinces.' - G. Bain

 

 

 

Wherever water occurs, it tends to take on a spherical form. It envelops the whole sphere of the earth, enclosing every object in a thin film.
Falling as a drop, water oscillates about the shape of a sphere; or as a dew fallen on a clear starry night, it transforms an inconspicuous meadow into a starry heaven of sparkling drops.

We see moving water always seeking a lower level, following the pull of gravity. Yet, water continually strives to return to its spherical form. It finds many ways of maintaining a rhythmical balance between the spherical form natural to it and the pull of earthly gravity.

Together, Earth, plant world and atmosphere form a single great organism, in which water dissolves, transports and nourishes like living blood. The essential reciprocal vehicle of all life, an unbreakable symbiosis!

Water is seen as a reflective surface possessing colours, hues, textures, undulations and ripples of great variety. The interior of water is perceived/ experienced as a mono mass, a clear solid. Yet, this invisible mass has inertia from minute to massive scale, ever moving, never still. Moving along spiralling surfaces, which glide past one another in manifold winding and curving forms. Even within fast flowing water the velocity is unseen unless the occasional trapped air bubble passes by, highlighting the weaving strands of the force. But within this turbulence of movement there are basic geometrical shapes. These shapes and patterns have been used by various cultures for philological decoration.

"The Invisible made Visible"

Neolithic / Celtic symbolism of telluric forces.

A very large per cent of Bronze Age artefacts are found clustered within watery realms. bogs, ponds, wells and lakes. They have been ritually disposed of. There are many decorative motifs on these objects. The most prominent one being the ‘Triskel’, or triple spiral motif; this, being the cross section of a water jet soon after its creation. An axiom of flow form structure, this classic symbol is found across Eurasia and appears throughout pre-history in all Matriarchal/Matrilineal societies.

"Neolithic and Bronze age art, with its extreme formalism, does not represent a primitive stage in the evolution of art. Nor an apparent step backwards away from the admirable and living representations of the art of the cave painters. It is highly sophisticated and expresses the realisation that important ideas can be conveyed by extremely limited symbolic forms."
JD Burnell 1937, art critic

"By the laws of the recapitulation of the life history of a species in the life of an individual, 'modern art' is sometimes a form of atavistic groping and the tendency of some European artists, when the power of realistic representation has been obtained, is to no longer accept this as the final achievement in art. The atavistic searchings’ of these artists are the reversions to the mental traits of remote ancestors, rather than immediate progenitors. Hence, such groupings, usually done in a state of acute consciousness, lead subconsciously to abstractions that may be inherited racial memories of the great Celtic cultures and of still earlier races of hunter/artists."
George Bain, 1951