Silk Drawings

Studies for works that I'll be showing on May 23rd. More info to follow soon.

Vanishing Tam

140 x 140cm; silk, paint, burn holes.
I'll get there one day with photographing the back lighting..

Silk drawings

Drawing, drawing, drawing, trying to get my work how I want it in time for my show in May. Arghh.

The Figure in the Gallery

140 x 140 cm; Silk, paint, burn holes

Arnold Circus

Leaving gift for Seb and Iz. Will always think of them when I'm at Arnold Circus.

Cold Kisses

140 x 140 cm; Silk, paint, burn holes

MakeArt Exhibition at Islington Arts Factory

What would it be like if children ruled the world? We'd finish work at 3pm and spend the afternoon on playdates or just sitting upside down on the sofa. Petit Filous would be our national dish. We'd all sing a lot more (as long as it's not Wind the Bobbin Up count me in). We'd have to travel around on those weird scooter things that they're all obsessed with. And justice would be a lot harsher, eked out with a pinch or even a bite.

You can't help think about kids as miniature overlords when you look at their powerful, ribald and sometimes, if I'm honest, a little creepy artwork on show at Islington Arts Factory. The 200 or so paintings, drawings and sculptures by 4-18 year olds display a directness, a freedom of imagination and a brutish control of materials, all dispatched with unapologetic assuredness. ALL the attributes really which you spend so long trying to rediscover at art school.

Take the below for example. It's from a workshop called Imaginary Cities, age-group 7-11. It looks like a more visceral Paul Noble. I love how the artist has distilled the terror and noise of modern cities into three of its most potent progeny: cars, planes and bombs.

Try wearing this Cinderella. Is it an object or a sculpture? Surely all sculptures are just objects at the end of the day. This work steps right into this debate with all the delight of a green frog-eyed welly into a brown puddle. I love how it seemingly invites you to put it on. I would not like to try wearing this.

Then there's this soulful painting. So much pathos in so few details – eyes, nose, mouth. It makes you realise what great artists Munch and Guston were.

I could go on. I have the pleasure of walking through this show several times a week since my studio is at the back of the hall. Sometimes it has felt like looking at the relics of a society where all the adults have left and no-one's sure when they're coming back. The objects are odd, thrilling, and just because they're made by children, no less true.

Anne Naylor

Silk, paint, burn holes; 140 x 140 cm

Scandie Walk

This September I went walking in north Sweden. We walked from Abisko to Nikkoluokta, 75 miles in all, mainly along the Kings Trail or Kungsleden as it is known. It was a group holiday; at times it felt like a school trip or being on Swedish Big Brother. My favourite part was staying in the mountain cabins, you could only get to them by foot. They had no running water or electricity and were run by Swedish fairy men. I also got really good at saunas and ate a life's supply of Ryvita. The landscape was pretty awesome too. I spent a lot of time drawing. I've posted a few more on my twitter.

Drawings for Anne Naylor

Anne Naylor was a 13-year old orphan who was beaten to death by her milliner employer in London in 1758. Anne's boss, Sarah Metyard, along with Metyard's daughter Sally, repeatedly tortured Anne who was a sick child and poor worker. Eventually Anne passed away, however, the Metyards kept up the pretense that she was still alive, so not to scare the other girls, whilst keeping her body in a trunk. The smell of the corpse became too much to bear, so the Metyards chopped up Anne's body and disposed of it in a drain in Farringdon on Christmas Day in 1758. Ten years later, unable to keep their secret, the Metyards were found out; they were hung at Tyburn. Anne's ghost, the "Screaming Spectre of Farringdon", supposedly still haunts the train station of the same name. These are the drawings that I'm working on for a silk about Anne, or "Nanny" as she was known.