• Contemporary art watercolour painting with digital additions

    Contemporary art watercolour painting

    Watecolour painting with digital additions.

    Watecolour painting using collage (April 2021) with digital additions (Oct 2023).

    A spontaneous semi-abstract watercolour painting with additions in Adobe Photoshop (added several years later, so it’s not that spontaneous).

    The watercolour rock-like object is collaged onto the sky, with the line work added later digitally.

    The painting is meant to have a sinister edge to it, with the rock-like form being some sort of creature. I’m very interested in the way that people see some creatures as being cure (baby mammals, especially furry ones being a prime example) and other creatures as being repellant (even at the baby stage).

  • Dada and humour: Duchamp Fountain with added spider

    contemporary dada – Duchamp Fountain with spider

    Contemporary Dada: Duchamp Fountain with Spider

    Digital image. April 2023.

    A digital image based on Marcel Duchamp’s Dada artwork, Fountain. Fountain is a ready-made in the form of a pissoir. The version of Fountain in the image is in Tate Modern in London (Duchamp created several versions of the work using different pissoirs. The original version no longer exists).

    In this work a spider is trapped in the pissoir in the same way that spiders are trapped in baths.

    The spider hopefully adds an extra touch of humour to a work that is already humourous. The humour partly resides in the fact that it’s unusual to see a spider where you don’t expect to see one (in an artwork), but at the same time the spider is exactly where you’d expect to see one (trapped in a piece of bathroom sanitary ware).

    I’m a frequent visitor to Tate Modern, and whenever I look at Duchamp’s Fountain I’m struck by how esthetically pleasing the form of Fountain is. I’m not sure whether or not Duchamp thought this himself or whether he chose the pissoir with no esthetic considerations involved.

  • Striding figure

    contemporary art striding figure

    Striding figure

    Digital sketch April 2023

    A monochrome sketch, created using Procreate on an iPad, depicting a striding figure.

    The work is from the imagination and was created spontaneously with no specific concept in mind.

  • Contemporary sculpture – pliers and plaster (and paint)

    Contemporary sculpture in the Arte Povera genre

    Pliers Piece I

    Pliers, plaster, acrylic paint. 12x1815cm. 2020

    A sculpture composed of a pair of splayed handyman’s pliers and a painted plastercast of the inside of a coffee filter cone.

    Pliers and other handyman’s tools such as hammers and spanners are recurrent features in some of my constructions.

    The work is probably influenced by the Arte Povera movement, and the plastercast of the inside of the coffee filter may owe something to artists such as Rachel Whiteread (although I don’t think that she’s known for adding colour to her casts).

  • Number Two in a series

    Contemporary art print usinng Procreate

    Number Two in a Series

    Digital print. Drawn in Procreate. March 2023

    Titled Number Two in a Series, this is part of a series of prints based on images of numbers drawn in Procreate on an iPad.

  • Abstract digital art created on iPad

    abstract contemporary digital art in Procreate

    Digital abstract painting

    Painted in Procreate. March 2023

    This is an example of digital abstract art, created in Procreate on an iPad using an Apple Pencil.

    The brushes in software such as Procreate and Adobe Fresco are getting better all the time, allowing for much more spontaneous and expressive work than was ever possible in the past. The expressiveness of the medium is now such that I think that the results can legitimately be classed as paintings rather than just digital art.

  • Contemporary sculpture – clothes rack stack

    Contemporary sculpture constructed from household objects

    Clothes Rack Stack

    Commercial clothes racks. 2022

    An installation composed of three clothes racks forming a pyramid.

    The pyramid of racks is this size purely because I only possess three clothes racks. Given a larger space and a larger number of racks the pyramid can be huge. You may notice in the photo that as well as a pausity of racks the low ceiling in the room mitigates against the construction of monumental artworks.

    This is a typical example of a work that almost created itself (I thought of it while I was moving the racks so that I could dry my washing). I have often admired the interplay of the horizontal and diagonal lines in the racks while I was using them for their proper purpose, but it was only recently that the idea of stacking them occurred to me.

    This work is probably partly inspired by the art movements of constructivism, dada and arte povera.

    Contemporay art sculpture inspired by constructivism, dada and arte povera
  • Contemporary ceramics – organic cones

    Contemporary ceramic art - organic handmade clay cones

    Organic cones

    Glazed ceramic. 2007 30x30x40cm

    A cluster of organic forms, possibly resembling aquatic lifeforms. The small indentations in the top of some of the cones adds to the organic effect. The worm-like appearance of the cones makes them a slightly disturbing.

    The cones are hand-rolled clay.

  • Pen and ink sketch – sweet chestnut tree

    dip pen and ink sketch sweet chestnut tree

    Dip pen and ink sketch of a sweet chestnut tree. Drawn from life.

    Dip pen and ink. 13cm x 18cm. 4th September 1991.

    This is a dip pen and ink sketch of a sweet chestnut tree in the Dordogne region of France that I drew from life on quite a cold day.

    There are numerous sweet chestnut trees in this part of France, as they were cultivated for their nuts, which I believe were a major part of the local diet.

    The tree was very old with lots of dead branches. There were also lots of leaves, which I think may have been growing on relatively new branches that may have sprouted lower down the tree when the tree recovered from a trauma of some description (and which nearly killed it off). Behind the tree is a ramshackle hut which appeared to have almost become part of the tree.

  • Environmental art. One World – globe sculpture

    Contemporary environmental art sculpture using globes

    One World. Environmental art

    Environmental art sculpture, commercially bought globes. February 2023.

    The sculpture is composed of one large globe with several smaller globes attached to it.

    The use of a globe of the Earth in the sculpture reflects my interest in environmental issues and in creating environmental art. My concerns about environmentalism go back to the 1960s, when I was mainly concerned with threats to wildlife. Since then the list of environmental concerns has grown and now includes climate change, resource depletion, environmental degradation and other aspects of environmentalism.

    One of several interpretations of the work is that it shows that on the one physical planet Earth there exist multiple cultural world-views.

  • Ants as a Superorganism

    contemporary art print – ant superorganism

    Superorganism.

    Digital print. 2023.

    A depiction of the concept of a superorganism.
    A superorganism is the name given to such things as colonies of insects in which the members of the colony act together so that the whole colony functions as though it is a single entity, and in which the individual members of the colony are probably not viable to survive alone.
    In the image hundreds (or maybe thousands – I lost count) of ants swarm across a rock and form into the shape of a huge single ant.

    The subject of the image reflects my interest in both art and science.

    Below is a detail of the work to show the appearance of the individual ants close-up.

    contemporary art and science – ant superorganism

    The image was created in Affinity Designer .

  • Mural – semi-abstract wall figures

    contemporary art mural

    Mural (proposal).

    Photomontage. December 2023

    A proposal for a mural applied directly to an art gallery wall.

    I’ve been experimenting with subjects that are suitable for murals on gallery walls for several years.

    The proposed mural is of a group of semiabstract figures with linked hands. The anatomy of the figures is ambiguous. Are the circular objects at the top of the figures their heads, or are those some form of decoration? Are the large white circles eyes, and are the various indentations mouths?

  • Fleeing environmental degradation – migration as a result of environmental collapse

    contemporary environmental art migration

    Fleeing environmental disaster. Mural (proposal).

    Photomontage. December 2023

    This proposed mural is based on a cartoon about fleeing environmental catastrophe that I drew in about 1991.

    The image depicts a Western family fleeing a ravaged land that is piled with the detritus of the consumer society. The family is fleeing in a builder’s skip or dumpster, which ironically is a symbol of consumerism in that skips can often be seen outside houses here in the UK while the owners of the houses have new kitchens installed to replace their perfectly good old kitchens. There are several skips in my street as I write this.

    When I first drew the cartoon about thirty years ago the concept of fleeing environmental disaster by boat was a novel idea with little or no link to actual events in the real world. The journey in the cartoon was symbolic. Now in the 2020s everything has changed, with boats constantly crossing the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel carrying migrants from countries that are affected by climate change and other environmental and social pressures.

    It’s interesting that if the mural depicted in this photograph was a cartoon in a magazine it would be looked at for a couple of seconds at most and then passed over. Enlarged onto a gallery wall the image may attract attention for noticeably longer and would magically attain a higher status.

    I’ve drawn environmental cartoons since the 1970s. My environmental cartoons have been published widely, including in publications such as the Guardian newspaper and the Critic magazine. A book of my environmental cartoons, When Humans Roamed the Earth, was published by WWF/Earthscan in 1992.

  • In the Beginning – rotating grids generating complex patterns

    In the Beginning: complex patterns generated from simple patterns

    Abstract digital animation     2015 

    This work is a an animation composed of overlapping identical grids of hexagons rotating relative to each other.
    The piece works on a similar principal to Moiré patterns, however the results are made more complex by the inclusion of simple computer algorithms that make the patterns in the grids interact with each other so that, for instance, where black areas overlap each other they turn white.The work is a relatively fast and dynamic work from the series. Others are slower and more meditative.

    The work is from a series that explores the generation of complexity from simplicity and is ultimately concerned with the visualisation of the basic underlying nature of the universe (which by its nature must be very simple) and the way that it gives rise to the immense complexity that we see around us.

  • Stilt man

    Stilt man

    Digital sketch. 6th November 2022

    A quick sketch of a man on stilts. He has a stilt fastened to each leg and is holding two further stilts.

    I’ve been drawing people on stilts on and off for a long time. I think my first one was about fifty years ago.

  • Complex patterns from simple patterns

    Complex patterns generated from simple patterns

    Digital animation     2015

    This work is a slow moving animation that repays close attention. At first you may think that the animation isn’t working, but after three or four seconds you will notice the changes that are occurring to the complex inner structure of the work. 
    It is composed of overlapping identical grids of hexagons rotating relative to each other.
    Simple algorithms make the black and white areas on the grids interact with each other so that, for instance, where black areas overlap they turn white.
    The work is deliberately slow to give it a meditative quality. Other works in the same series are faster and give a more dynamic effect.

    The work is part of a series called In the Beginning that explores the generation of complex patterns from simple patterns or forms as a metaphor for the creation of complexity within the physical universe from what must by definition be extremely simple beginnings.

  • Different artists having the same idea

    Humorous contemporary text-based art

    An example of the same concept by different artists.

    Drawing. 2019. Photo: Harrison and Wood, Frieze, London. 2022

    An example of different artists thinking of the same idea independently.
    My cartoon drawing is a joke about text-based art from a book of cartoons that I produced on the subject of contemporary art and humour in 2019 ( See here ).
    The photograph is of a sculptural text-based work by Harrison and Wood that was exhibited at Frieze London in 2022.

  • Emergent Patterns of Complexity

    contemporary optical effect art

    Emergent Patterns of Complexity.

    Artist’s impression/photomontage. 2014.

    An artist’s impression of one of my Emergent Pattern artworks as it would appear displayed on an art gallery wall.
    The work is composed of two identical grids of black lines that are one above the other and that are at an angle to each other. Where the lines on the two grids cross each other the black lines cancel out and are replaced by white. The effect is that the overlapping grids create complex emergent patterns similar to Moire fringes or interference patterns (Moire type patterns are created without the need to cancel out the black areas where the lines cross, but the patterns are more complex and interesting using this cancelling technique).

    The artwork is inspired by my fascination with optics and optical effects and my interest in both art and science.


  • Shadow rings – contemporary light sculpture featuring cast shadows

    contemporary light art sculpture with cast shadows

    Shadow Rings.

    Card, acrylic paint, LED light source. 30x15x20cm. 2022.

    A light source shining on painted and folded card cut-outs in the form of rings.
    The shadows cast by the light shining on the rings form half of each full ring on the base of the artwork.
    The video above shows the light turning on and off to show the effect.
    An example of contemporary light sculpture. The piece is deliberately low-tech, using a cheap commercial table lamp as a light source and simple folded card.

  • Abstract acrylic painting

    modernist contemporary art acrylic painting

    Abstract acrylic painting.

    Acrylic on watercolour paper. 30x20cm. 2022.

    An abstract painting composed of black lines and areas of colour.
    The framework of black acrylic lines was painted first, quite quickly and spontaneously. The coloured areas were added to this superstructure later after experimenting with their positions.