Category: Blog

The beginning of something?

Work in progress
Acrylic on Canvas 600mm x 690mm
After a while.

This is Petal

Anyway, here’s Petal.

Petal: 420 x 297mm (A3), Acrylic on paper.

Art Exhibition

Click on an image to begin

Crocuses finished on wall

Framed and ready to roll. This painting will be on display and for sale at The Wholefood Shop in a few days. Not sure about the price yet but I like it a lot so . . . .

Crocuses – Oil on Canvas 80cm x 60cm (plus frame)

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Crocuses

Oils on canvas 2017

needs finishing and framing – planning to do it over the Easter weekend

It will be on display in The Wholefood Shop after that.

Oil painting of Cricuses
Crocuses 2017 – Oils on Canvas 80cm x 60cm

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Poem – Twin Towers

Here is a poem written after the event

Twin Towers

I was wounded first –
the blow caught me in the neck.
I couldn’t breathe,
then –
with a whoosh of fire,
my mouth opened
and huge clouds of smoke fled out.
I didn’t realise I had such energy,
such love.
I smiled when I knew I was dying;
I always said I would go first.
You watched as I choked, incredulously,
not wanting to believe
in my mortality.
My belly shook, I retched and coughed,
but your strength,
the power of your gaze,
began to mend.
Then –
you were smacked in the chest;
a direct hit to your heart,
and you shuddered
but you didn’t scream;
there was no sound
yet.
That’s when I caught your eye;
that’s when I knew
we were both going to die.
In that silent lightless time
I watched, still wounded,
still breathing burning breath,
then –
you deflated with a groan
that shook the world.

I stood, shocked, alone in emptiness
that spread like nothing
through the universe.
With no light left, I crumbled too;
we sighed together, merged –
forever
in mounds of dirt.
Then
I knew that love can never die
not even then, not in that place
where the world was witness
to our hurt.

Skin and Bones – New Novel available now

Skin is a taxi driver, Bones is a Detective Inspector. They hate each other but both operate on the same patch, the large ex-industrial town of Elchurch on the South Coast of Wales. A young woman is found dead and they are both drawn into the investigation. But all is not what it seems as the brothers separately and together deal with the consequences of the murder.

Available now:

Kindle Version: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08QJ8MSCB

Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1904958737

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Skin and Bones – new novel coming soon

My new novel Skin and Bones will be published soon. It is in the final stages of proofreading.

Skin is a taxi driver and his brother Bones is a police detective. They do not get on but since they both operate in the large post-industrial town of Elchurch on the South Wales coast they often come across each other in the course of their work.

They both become embroiled in the apparent disappearance of an enigmatic young woman who is driven home by Skin late one night from the town centre. As the story unfolds it becomes apparent that all is not what it seems.

Here’s a draft cover idea.

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Coming Out of Lockdown

Oil on canvas 15/6/2020 – 60cm x 50cm / 24″ x 20″

Painted between April and June 2020 during the Covid lockdown. On display in The Wholefood Shop Cardiff  and for sale at the right price.

The painting was started as a pure abstract, in the sense that there was a blank canvas, a random selection of oil paints, brushes and spatulas and no definable objective in mind other than the need to spread some colour and create an image.

What emerged is a representation of what it felt like during lockdown and when the first signs of its easing began.

The colours are fiery, representing the fever of coronavirus. The composition is of two individuals facing away from each other as if to maintain social distancing. The shape in the middle is undefined but may be thought of as an unknowable and unspeakable thing, an awareness of the hugeness and awfulness of the virus on the psyche of those who happen to be alive during the pandemic.

Yet, at its core it is a joyous and hopeful image, with a bright and powerful energy that comes from the very heart of the universe, from the source of life and love itself.

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Croeso – Welcome

What’s it all about then?

No one’s got a clue really, but we try to do our best.

This website exists to display a bit of one person’s attempts to do their best. When I say ‘best’ I’m not sure if that’s true in the sense that everything here is perfectly crafted, because it’s not. Some of it is roughly hewn or not hewn at all, simply pointed at, but then again, maybe that’s the best I can do.

I dunno.

I reckon that less than 1 in 100 visitors to this website are actual human beings so if you’re one of them and not a bot, and have managed to read this far down the page, I hope you can find something of interest here.

Just scroll and click and search. Turn over some metaphorical stones – there’s quite a lot to uncover even if I do say so myself.

blah blah – you know the score – here’s a poem from 1999 about knowing the score

ninetyfivefive
 
 you know the score
 in a movie 
 or a tv show
 the flaws
 small flaws
 idiosyncratic flaws
 twelve flaws
 or just one 
 we’re allowed to be flawed 
 it’s ok as long as in the end 
 we’re fucking good at our job
 in my real life i’m an artex ceiling of cracks and fissures
 with some small redemption
 
 it’s kind of arse-backwards ain’t it?

More Reflections in a Bin

Here’s a short video clip set on/in a bin

Taken the same time as the photo in a previous post, i.e. March 16th, at the beginning of lockdown

The Flying Boy

I recently completed writing a new novel. The title of the book is ‘Skin and Bones’ . More news on that soon, but in the meantime here is an update on a major work-in-progress.

It’s a book with the working title of ‘The Flying Boy’. The title refers to a recurring dream I used to have when I as a boy, probably no more than eight or nine years old, possibly younger.

The dream involved me flying along the street where I lived at rooftop height. I think it influenced me a lot, in fact I am influenced a lot by the recurring dreams of my childhood. There were a lot of them.

I already wrote a book based on the one about The Three Bears and much of my other thoughts about what the universe is, how time works, reincarnation, spirituality, morality and so on, originate in my childhood dreams.

There will be more info about The Flying Boy in future I’m sure and one day the book will be published. Don’t expect a ‘normal’ novel-like thing, but it is a novel. In the meantime, here’s an extract from the work-in-progress. Continue reading “The Flying Boy”

Corona Response Team (Painting)

Started this at the beginning of lockdown – been fiddling with it since – finally finished it yesterday (April 24 2020)

Abstract acrylic painting - orange circle on blue and green
Corona Response Team – Acrylic on Card/Paper 50x42mm, 20″x17″ approx Inc Frame

Painted on a charity shop frame and mount

Branches and Sun reflected in a bin full of rainwater

cropped

Original Photo

Ramble – Podcast

New Face – Pedro

New-Face Pedro, Acrylic on canvas sheet 2019, 40cm x 30cm exc frame

The Creature – a short video about an upcoming play

This is a short video I made to help promote the upcoming play from Company of Sirens at Chapter Arts in Cardiff

Candigirl – acrylic portrait

here’s Candigirl

Candigirl – A3 size, acrylics on paper

and here’s Candigirl in a frame

Candigirl in frame

It’s a collage

It’s a collage, that’s what it is, it’s a coll-fucking-age

writer or painter?

if I don’t paint I can’t write, in fact if I don’t paint I lose the plot . . . it takes a while, months, sometimes longer, but here it comes again . . . sorry, got to go and paint . . . if anything decent comes out of my forthcoming painting session I’ll post it here, you’ll be the first to know . . . back in a bit . . .  . . . it’s later . . . well, that didn’t go very far, there was a fair bit of tidying up and sorting out paints and brushes and canvases, not to mention collecting all the other stuff that had accumulated in the shed and putting it out of the way . . . then it was too hot to paint in there so very little got done (painting-wise) . . . then there was cooking and generally mooching about and just being unfocused . . . and now . . . here’s the result . . .

so, writer or painter then?

neither I suppose, not today anyway