This piece began as a series of daily sketches made in October 2025 for #pinktober. At the time, I was drawing instinctively — responding to ideas of damage, fragility, and the uneasy relationship between human presence and the natural world.
Those drawings later became three paintings for the Seeds of Hope exhibition at the VC Gallery in Pembroke Dock, South Wales: Still Eden?, Things Fell Apart, and Peaceful Oasis.
Each painting was created on a recycled canvas previously used for teaching. Rather than starting from a blank surface, I worked over what was already there, allowing earlier marks and layers to remain visible. The materials themselves became part of the meaning — carrying traces of past use, correction, and repetition.
The works also incorporate thermochromic pigments that shift from purple to pink when warmed, along with wildflower seeds sealed into the surface. There is a possibility — not a guarantee — that if the paintings are eventually discarded and broken down, something living might emerge from them.
This video is an extension of that process.
I began experimenting with animation using AI as a way of exploring what these painted environments might feel like if they could move — if the cracks could deepen, the colour could shift, and the landscape could continue beyond the still image. The intention wasn’t to replace the paintings, but to sit alongside them: another layer, another way of looking.
The soundtrack was written in response to the work, influenced in part by Nothing But Flowers by Talking Heads — a song that imagines a world reclaimed by nature, where the result is both beautiful and quietly unsettling.
Across the paintings and the video, the same question remains:
What happens after damage? What continues without us? And what, if anything, might still grow.
Click the link below to see the full video on YouTube
Putlake Farm The Salt Pig High St, Swanage BH19 3EU
Painted 2005
20 years in 2025
Putlake Farm The Salt Pig High St, Swanage BH19 3EU
Painted 2005
20 years later in 2025 (The line going through the middle is actually an electric cable hanging down in front of the panel, not a crack.)
Donut in the window
19 Gilbert Road, Swanage
Painted in 2002
23 years later in 2025 (This mural is very close to the steam railway and, as you can see it gets very dirty from the steam emitted by the trains going by daily. I have already refreshed this mural twice since it was first painted and it is in need of having it done again)
Every Thursday from 2pm until 4pm. No experience necessary, open to all ages, all abilities. First session free, every further session £3 per person, includes refreshments. Materials can be supplied.
In October 2023 an appeal was launched to find this missing miners’ strike banner, which had been carried by women from south Wales.
The flag, which shows “a strong militant Welsh woman”, was waved by the Women Against Pit Closures group at rallies and protests during 1984.
The group wanted to find the banner for the 40th anniversary of the strike, when a rally is being held in Durham in March 2024 for the National Women Against Pit Closures 40th anniversary group.
After placing various appeals on social media, TV and newspapers, sadly, there was no sign of the banner being located.
After a few months of no success in locating the banner, the group made a decision…..they would have a new version made in homage to the original.
This was when they were put in touch with me, by Joseph Dickens of Elektra Designs.
This was my final design based on the original banner:
“Around 20 years ago I was painting a lot of abstracts and semi abstract paintings, then in 2003 I went to university and did a BA degree in Fine Arts.
When I came out of that my art had changed dramatically, I decided that I was only going to paint commissioned murals and never try to paint individual paintings or show in a gallery ever again. I think it almost destroyed my creative spirit, I lost complete confidence in producing abstract work because I didn’t have a ‘concept’ behind the work, I thought my work had no meaning or depth.
Over the past year or so, I have been drawn towards creating abstracts again. My favourite way of working is intuitively, having no end result in mind and just going where the painting takes me. Many times I end up with just a muddy mess, but sometimes something amazing happens. I have come to realise that my best work doesn’t need a concept or meaning, people tend to find their own meaning in the work.”
This was a post I put out on Facebook this week. It began as a comparison between my early abstract paintings (like the one above) and my more recent pieces (below).
I hadn’t painted abstract work for around 20 years, and I put this down to the fact that I stopped painting them when I did my BA in Fine Art from 2003 – 2008.
I hadn’t intended this post to be a negative prose about the degree, but after reading the comments that followed, I realised that a lot of the artists I am friends with on Facebook had also had bad experiences with a Fine Art degree:
“My Fine Art degree totally shit on any enjoyment of making art for me. EVERYTHING had to have a fucking concept and that concept had to be anything except joy.“
“Totally agree with you both! Struggling to ever make work again… preferred the joy of gardening!”
“I had a similar experience. 4 years pretty much wasted.”
“I agree sadly, I lost my way. I loved painting but my faith in it became destroyed. Sorry to say.”
“I didn’t paint during the 5 years either, because ‘it didn’t seem to be what was required.”
“Your post gives me hope. Thankyou. I know exactly wot you mean.”
“I realised it wasn’t for me when one lecturer told me to stop painting colorist abstracts on card, which I loved doing at the time. He said, ‘you need to stop doing all this…’. I was like, eh!?”
I then tried to look back and work out why I had wanted to do the degree in the first place. I was already an established artist and regularly sold my work. I had already worked out that I preferred to do public murals but hadn’t analysed why at that time.
So why did I want to do a BA in Fine Art?
Well, my main reason was that every time I tried to submit a proposal to bid for a public art project, if it was funded by an Arts Council organisation, they would only consider applicants with a degree. So I thought I could use this course to thoroughly research the history and development of murals and get those precious letters behind my name at the end of it.
I soon discovered that Fine Art seemed to be more about the ‘concept’ than it was about the art. “Concept” to me just meant the “Art Bollox”. And I really struggled with it, always believing that my art should just stand alone, let people take what they want from it!
The course totally put me off ever wanting to make art to show in galleries ever again, and I didn’t actually paint (other than on walls) for around 10 years after the course had finished.
At one point I remember one of the tutors telling me I should step outside of my comfort zone and try something I had never done before. I had never stopped doing courses in various art forms since I left school, so the only thing he could find for me to try was performance art, this was totally going against my reasons for doing the degree in the first place!
What did I get out of the degree?
I do want to add that it wasn’t a totally negative experience. I did enjoy learning some of the art history and some of the tutors did understand what I wanted to get out of the degree and they were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction for my research.
I learnt a lot about the origin of murals and realised that I wanted to specialise in ‘trompe l’oeil’, the trick of the eye type, which required a lot of realism in the work, a million miles away from painting abstracts.
I also did get those precious letters behind my name, which I rarely used! I came to realise that any project that was asking for applicants with a degree, wasn’t a project I would want to be involved in.
I don’t want to put others off doing a BA degree in Fine Art, I know many artists have said it helped them to find direction for their art. But I do want to add that many of the students I knew from university went on to do many other jobs, not many actually became full time professional artists.
And the saga continues! We still have a huge number of Coronavirus cases spreading across the country, with new strains developing. Will things ever go back to ‘normal’?
Throughout 2021 I continued to host Zoom painting tutorials on behalf of the VC Gallery every week. Some fantastic work was produced by my students throughout the year!
In March 2021, I moved house, which was a bit chaotic, trying to find a man with a van during lockdown, but we managed in the end. The new house needed quite a lot of work doing to it, but it’s slowly coming along.
I now have my own studio, which makes life a lot easier than trying to work from a table in the living room, which I was doing previously.
Photo courtesy of Paula Garrard
I managed to complete 3 small murals this year. I found them more of a struggle than I have in the past, due to the development of arthritis in my hips. Bending, sitting and standing are all painful after a short period of time, but I felt a huge accomplishment at managing to finish these, even if they took me a little longer than I am used to.
April 2021, Freshwater West sunset on a garage wall at Cranford Cottage, Hundleton, PembrokeshireJune 2021, Wall outside of Caravan 1, West Angle Bay Caravan ParkSeptember 2021, Harry’s Room, Pembroke
I also had a few commissions over the year:
I also had some time to paint some canvasses for my own personal fun! These 2 are my personal favourite pieces of 2021, firstly a tribute to John Lydon and secondly Carmargue Horses:
Anger Is An EnergyCarmargue Horses
It will be interesting to see what 2022 has in store!
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