inspiration rocks
The other day I went in search of a beach that I last visited almost 20 years ago. It had … Read More
What I fancy making right now
A week walking in the Yorkshire Dales and then a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with its new Sean Scully exhibition has left my senses thrilled and my thoughts questioning the ability of art to communicate even the vaguest inkling of past experience.… Read More
Poetry is not words
Poetry is not an arrangement of words, but a quality of openness, a distillation of experience and a refinement of … Read More
The language of images
In the introduction to Kathleen Raine’s selected poems she says, nature poetry is not what we write about nature, … Read More
The persistence of impressions
If I can find a unifying theme for these last months’ travels it is stone. Red stone outcrops carved to … Read More
a bowl of water and light
I’ve just delivered a painting to a client who wanted to bring the essence of a landscape that she’d known since childhood into her home. The bay between Tresaith and the Ynys Lochtyn peninsula is like a bowl of water and light, sea and sky almost indistinguishable, held by the outstretched arms of land. It is a place to rest and breathe.… Read More
Painting is like toddler talk
I heard a toddler the other day copying his parents’ talking but making no sense. Blah, blah, b’blah, blah, he … Read More
“create something as living as nature, so that it itself may continue to live.”
The artist, Matthew Smith (1879-1959) studied under Henri Matisse in Paris. Matisse encouraged him to intensify his vision of the … Read More
“what is interesting about the specific is what it says about the universal”
I heard this said by Author Hisham Matar on the radio this morning, talking about his approach to writing. It … Read More
With painting, you just never know
I always turn to the writings of artist Sean Sculley when I want inspiration and insight. Here, from his selected … Read More
Why purple doesn’t exist
The colour purple does not exist in the real world. Apparently it’s true. A rainbow of light from red to … Read More
improvisation in earth tones
After all those months of working with white for the land, sea and light collection, my palate/palette was well and … Read More
land, sea and light
Land, sea and light is a collection of 17 white reliefs, hung as the doors of oak and beech cabinets, … Read More
the mist of familiarity
In 1819 Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “the mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being.” Is the … Read More
cliff top to vacuum press in a day
A few year ago I wrote a blog post asking whether it was possible to retain the energy of a … Read More
Banksy or Van Gogh – who to copy?
Right now I’m struggling with the finish of a series of landscape cabinets and would love some fresh ideas. The … Read More
coincidence – pierced forms
Isn’t the web a feast of coincidence. A ring carved from bamboo by Kevin Woolgar @kevinwoolgar, a photographer in Puerto … Read More
hang a landscape on your wall
I want to make a collection of cabinets that hang on the wall like beautiful landscape paintings, whose interiors take … Read More
“I want my furniture to look like that.”
When I was first training as a furniture maker I saw a print on a friend’s wall. It was a … Read More
Starring role for dining table
Last night Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (Sherlock and Watson) starred alongside the Leaf dining table in the BBC TV … Read More
while storms rage
While winter storms drive huge waves against the Pembrokeshire coastline and we have to take diversions to avoid the beach … Read More
300 years in the making
Last Saturday saw a significant celebration – the unveiling of the first piece completed at the Pembrokeshire workshop. It had … Read More
The lighhouse cabinet
Late last year a client arrived to discuss a cabinet for his new Georgian appartment in Clifton, Bristol. He was … Read More
JCBs and day-flying bats
It’s been a week of arrivals and unexpected help. Birds from Africa, bats from hibernation, carpenters from Tasmania, and machine … Read More
On the move in 2013
2013 sees the planned move to live and work in the landscape that has become my muse.
Nature in Art exhibition
delighted to have my work in the British Contemporary Crafts exhibition at the Nature in Art Gallery near Gloucester, UK, … Read More
rock pool collection pictures
Here is the collection of sculptural lights and tables inspired by the tiny marine world inside a hole in a … Read More
Land, sea and light video
Here’s a video about Land, Sea and Light – this is the beginning of a project to create a collection … Read More
using burr veneer video
How do you create a veneered table top? Here’s one of a series of “making of” videos now on the … Read More
Birdsong Tables
A while ago, sitting on a bridge in my local nature reserve and listening to a particularly soulful blackbird, I … Read More
Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen
I heard today that I have been accepted for associate membership of the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen. It means that … Read More
Boxes as Sorbet
Boxes are a sorbet for the furniture maker – they refresh the palate between heavier and more complex pieces. But they … Read More
Goodbye, Table. I will remember your making
It would be easy to think, looking at a calm and refined piece of furniture, that the experience of making … Read More
Clay, wood and beauty 3
If you’ve been reading the recent posts you’ll know that I’ve been thinking about the relationship between woodworking and ceramics, … Read More
clay, wood and beauty: 2
Paul Bradley – the maker of the pot in the previous post – pointed me at the work of Edmund … Read More
clay, wood and beauty
I think there’s a great affinity between ceramics and wood. I treated myself after a recent commission to this beautiful … Read More
Furniture and birdsong
With all the wonderful bird song beginning again now and Spring feeling as if it must burst out soon, I … Read More
Furniture as sketch?
Can a piece of furniture be a sketch? Or more specifically, can it have the immediacy and energy of a … Read More