It is far too long since I updated my website. Over the last year I have been working towards a solo show at Southampton City Art Gallery, the dates of which are now confirmed as 23 April to 5 September, 2027. We have been negotiating this for several years now and it has been delayed because the galleries have been closed for refurbishment – they opened again in early March this year.
The exhibition will be called Southampton Water and the focus will be on the contrast between the great port and the small area on the southernmost tip of the Isle of Wight where I grew up. Southampton styles itself as ‘the gateway to the world’ and there will be paintings describing the actual waterway from the Red Funnel ferry that runs between East Cowes and Town Quay in Southampton. I also see it as a metaphorical passage through time and space: memories, myth and nostalgia underly closely observed paintings of landscapes and figures gathered throughout a lifetime. Water flows through the exhibition, whether the sea or the flooded Severn in Worcestershire where I now live.
3 October,2026
Approaching the Docks from the Isle of Wight Ferry
oil on linen, 102 x 102 cm