This website contains samples of my work as an artist. You can navigate the site using the Menu which can always be found at the left-hand-side of the screen. The Menu term "Home" refers to this screen, the terms "Narrative" to "Working with the Old Masters" refer to screens exhibiting thumbnails of my paintings, and the term "Other Topics" refers to a general selection of topics not covered elsewhere. Each page of thumbnails is organised with the most recent pictures at the top. If you want to enlarge a picture just click on the thumbnail; to return from the enlarged image to the thumbnail click the browser's "Back" symbol. You can always return to the Home page by selecting "Home" from the menu. And if you want to make contact with me, please click here and send me an email.
Most of the menu terms are self-explanatory; however, I use the term 'narrative' in a new way, as described below.
Narrative pictures
I work in a new and exciting field of visual representation, namely the psychodynamics of childhood. The idea is to use paintings to highlight the child's perspective on events which can easily be overlooked or misinterpreted by the adult world.. My work in this area has been inspired by the work of George Frankl, an eminent psychoanalyst.
Let me give an example to illustrate this: the first picture in the "Narrative" section, which is labelled "In My Father's Shadow". The picture originates from an old photograph, but I felt that it did not truly represent the inner thoughts and feelings of the boy in the picture; indeed, to coin a phrase, the idea that "the camera never lies" was very misleading.
In the picture on the website the father has one hand on the boy's shoulder, as if to comfort him. But examination of the boy's posture and expression reveals that he feels rigid and held back, as if he is angry and blazing with repressed rage but cannot express it; the situation is made all the more complex by the double-bind feeling that the father is only trying to do his best; so the boy feels guilty and angry at resenting his hold. Another hint as to what is really going on is the shadow. In the painting the boy does not have a shadow of his own, which suggests that he does not really exist for the father (and hence for himself). Thus his self is entirely absorbed and devoured by his father. This is also emphasised in the picture by using brighter colours in parts of the picture to which the boy has no access. His life is dull and grey, indeed without love; his father steals the light from him and makes the boy an extension of himself.
In this way, a simple picture is used to tell a story. This is not a new idea; many artists (such as Goya, Dix, Grosz, Kirchner and others) have used the same idea Their subjects covered the evils of war, social or political corruption and the desire for innocence; in contrast, what I want to draw attention to is the behaviour of children, which parents can find so puzzling, and which I hope my pictures will help people understand.
All images on this site are based on digital photographs; these may be subject to minor distortion of colour, surface texture and composition; this apart, the images give a good first impression. All image measurements are approximate and are given in centimetres (height before width).