About the exhibition 

I’m drawn to the vibrancy of urban yellows, from hi-vis and fluorescent clothing and geometric markers, they are signals to alert you; something’s going on. To drivers yellow lines represent forbidden zones but as a pedestrian I have the luxury of dispassionate observation. I see painterly abstracts on canvases of tarmac. Thick layers build over fresh, faded and repainted surfaces. Finally light and dust dries them to pieces and it starts all over again.

But if these lines are meant to control then they do a poor job; cities are chaotic places. No matter how much order and uniformity is imposed we will not be controlled. Paper gets torn up. We clutter up the place and our living days are evidenced on pavements and kerbs by anything from squashed chewing gum, single gloves, plastic bags, string, wire, sofas, to lone bicycle chains, and to even the discarded spectacles I’ve collected.

My previous work has drawn on discarded clutter, how things work or don’t work to speak of lives lived. In these paintings I’ve been exploring how the unsentimental fakeness of urban yellows can still be about human lives.

Artist’s Bio

I came to Brighton to study at the Poly/Uni in the mid 80s.After graduating I became involved in setting up Maze Studios & Galleries, later joining – via Red Herring Studios – Phoenix Artspace at its beginnings. I’ve shown in solo and group shows and collaborative projects.

My work has mainly taken the form of paintings and drawing in pencil, ink, prints: in wall work, as printed illustration and bookwork, in murals and 3D.

I’m interested in the stories and histories of human lives as lived in urban spaces, always looking for the overlooked and the details from which to draw.