About Me

I woke up one day in my 40th year absolutely convinced that I could sculpt. I had always drawn and painted but my only experience of sculpting was making a clay dolphin, at school, when I was 12 years old. I liked the end product but positively hated the feeling of clay. So, I set out to find a different way to sculpt.

The way I found was courtesy of Hilary Archer, a wood and stone carver in Hampshire. Hilary showed me the basics, declared me a natural (I love her for that) , and let me use her carving studio every weekend for almost two years. From there I went on to obtain a first class degree at Portsmouth University, specialising in stone carving and specialist paint effects. 

My love of animals and nature inspires me everyday and my work hopefully expresses that. I especially loves the creatures of the British Isles – foxes, owls, hedgehogs, otters and anything I can bump into on a walk. Form, symmetry, sweeping lines and the feel of the piece are the most important aspects of the work for me and my pieces are almost always sleek, stylised and eminently stroke-able.

 If you see me work you will notice that I spend as much time running my hands around the piece as I do looking at it, because feeling enables me to “see” in a different way, and it is a more accurate for me to establish symmetry. When it feels and looks right, my work on that piece is done.

In 2024 I decided  to take my artwork more seriously and to "get it out there".  I visited galleries and shows to see where my art would fit and then took the plunge and applied. Then I panicked because I had all these deadlines and little work to show. With some discipline and a lot of support from arty friends, my wife, and dog, I finally made enough new pieces to exhibit around Hampshire. 

Then, in typical fashion, I decided that I would explore a new media and painted "Martin's Leaf", my first painting for decades. And it sold on it's first outing! There is a chance more paintings may follow, watch this space....

I also found a clay that I didn't hate the feeling of. It is called Monster Clay and there will be a number of new pieces coming in Winter 24 that started as Monster Clay pieces (eg the Rays and Dormouse sculptures). These were then cast into plaster, remodelled, carved a bit, stylised, and sanded for what seemed like forever, before casting again into Jesmonite. A long process, but one that enables quicker initial creation than carving from a block.  

2026 is around the corner and giving lessons will be a main focus as well as getting the work out further afield. Exciting!