My Best Work – Portfolio

Colourful acrylic paintings – my best work

This is my chance to show you some of my best work ! All my paintings are for sale at reasonable prices .

Story Pictures and Social Issues

This is an ongoing Northern Fringe Gallery project – a great group of artists I am a member of . We are involved in a fascinating exhibition – A History of the World in 100 Objects. It’s based on Neil McGregor’s book about 100 exhibits from the British Museum.

This painting illustrates the story of how the secret of making silk was smuggled out of China as depicted on a wooden story board which is kept in the museum in London .The princess hid the silkworms in her headdress and took them out of the country and from there I show the ‘silk road ‘ stretching all the way to the Manningham Mill in Bradford . At it’s heyday, it was the largest silk mill in Europe

My tribute to Hokusai

This is my tribute to Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave ‘ masterpiece which is in the British Museum. I have set the scene on a local reservoir where I and my family used to walk when I was a child. We would often watch the fishermen, totally oblivious to everything except the fish. This is also part of the 100 Objects project.

In the British Museum there is a clay tablet describing a catastrophic flood which pre-dates the Bible. I re-imagined the scene in my home town in the present day, highlighting my concerns about climate change. This is the third painting in the 100 Objects project.

I put together this acrylic painting for a group exhibition at Creative Arts Hub , Mirfield, Yorkshire ( UK ) last year and the brief was ‘The Sound of Colour ‘ I chose to illustrate the sound of reggae music and I painted a semi-abstract montage of Jamaica , showing both a tourist beach and some slum houses- – all the while listening to a track by Toots and the Maytals called ‘ Reggae , Reggae ‘. I’m very proud of this painting because it represents how I feel about Reggae music . So think it’s definitely an example of my best work .

The History of the Textile Industry – a Story Picture

I painted this in response to a call -out for an exhibition in Blackburn as part of a celebration of the manufacturing heritage of the Pennine towns in the North of England. I chose to illustrate the idea of the Spinning Jenny , an early innovation in the yarn spinning industry which I imagined as a strong , capable young woman of the era spinning endlessly over the town of Blackburn through the ages , up to modern times . The acrylic painting on canvas didn’t get into the exhibition , but it was fun doing it !

Abstract Experiments

Abstract Compositions in Acrylic

This was painted following a set of instructions dictating all the colours and some of the shapes to be included. Despite this, I found it quite easy to be creative and I was pleasantly surprised by the end result.

On a cold, dull day I started to paint quite instinctively, in contrast to the previous painting. I think this might be called Abstract Expressionism . I seem to have chosen really bright,glowing colours and it really cheered me up. Everyone has said it makes them feel happy and then they smile !

The inspiration for this painting just came into my head one day – a neon pink spiral on a rich dark blue background. This hardly ever happens to me – not for an abstract anyway. I really enjoyed the experience and I seem to have opened up that part of my creative brain now. So, who knows what I will paint next ?

The inspiration for this came to me after a particularly cold and snowy winter. It started off as an abstract composition and then I realised I had painted some landscape elements such as a river, a tree and some rocks.At the same time , I was also thinking of an exhibition I had just seen at the Hepworth Gallery – a light installation where you could walk through the beams of light. And so I added a figure in silhouette to my painting .

I painted this mixed media piece a few weeks ago , inspired by the Spring flowers . Read more about my recent art activities in my blog here

Six new large canvases painted in Lockdown – some examples of my best work .

I don’t think I could show you some examples of my best work and leave out these large canvases . These are 24 inch square and I’ve definitely moved on quite a way on my artistic journey whilst painting these .