Painting and drawing since 1946 when it became safe, at last, to go out with my mother to the fields and lanes beneath the skies so recently inhabited by spitfires,  messerschmitts and doodlebugs, in the tiny village of Brasted, Kent. Accompanied by my sister Angela and tutored by my mother Joan we discovered ways to express, from close-up to distance, the idyllic surroundings . The fluid shapes, the colours - especially the colours were explored and named and their counterparts in our paint boxes were mixed and applied. The perspective of fields, houses, barns, tractors and the local steam engine was deftly taught by our uncle Michael.

    Theatre school followed. Our studies included movement by Laban and Commedia dell Arte. A few years  passed "treading the boards" and getting plays mounted that included set painting under the supervision of John Bury and mask and scene study influenced by Edward Gordon Craig. Help with techniques in oil painting continues from the very able Alex Thomson, formally Fine Arts tutor at Winchester.

    Portrait painting started in 1971 with some attempts at, my then, youngest son Stephen aged three in acrylic. An early, LOUISE PURNELL and a more recent portrait, CLEEVE BERAREY are shown on this website. Portraits now can be developed in to a biographical series that would include a study of the sitter and any number of seemingly (to the sitter) disconnected paintings that emerge. An example would be the portrait series "Victor".

    Brought up a Catholic I know the influence paintings in a church can have. The church gives a sense of belonging and familiarness; the chiaroscuro, the shapes of pillar and pew, the warm smell of wax and unctious incense. Belonging is about the familiar faces. The narrative is why I'm here. The paintings illustrate and reinforce, helping the story ease its way to my subconscious where it can reside forever. Removing the Faith is as painful, I'm sure, as waking from a Polar hibernation; it takes longer.

    I am developing a painting language which for want of a better name I call "cave painting". It has come from a need to restore what I had once and now hunger for. A visualisation of things common, shared in a public place. There at every visit. Looked at and not looked at. Anonymous. Motherly.

    Inspiration has come from visits to Les Eyzies in France and seeing examples of the Haida and Kwakiutl cultures in Vancouver.

    Paintings in "THE CAVEPAINTER" idiom started in 1997. All are figurative developments of simple "form line" drawings showing species, gender and activity. They were first shown in 2002 in London in a solo exhibition opened by Fergal Keane OBE. They have also been shown in public spaces in and around Bristol courtesy of Crosby Homes.

    The CAVEPAINTER or The CAVEPAINTINGS:
O.K. What's going on here? It's a developing story.
I want to express states of being - primarily of people; with a universality, if that's possible. In otherwords without colour, religion,individual identity (now that's NOT the zeitgeist!) and without sentimentality.
So I'll paint what waiting is or moving or what joy is or what a child without family or letting go is.
I like a visual feast, simplicity, formal discipline, self expression, Brechtian alienation, doodling. These can be
seen in the IN QUEST pictures some of which are posted on this website.
Experimenting with the shapes people make is fun. Sometimes I put the "form line" process in reverse and stick them on to paintings of musicians or sports people for example as an experiment. These can be seen in the IN PLAY pictures on this website.
   

    My thanks to Charlie Hamilton-James who did most of the photography of the paintings.

updated AUGUST 2010