Latest news: THE END OF THE YEAR

Posted: December 29, 2025

THE END OF THE YEAR

2025 is fast drawing to a close and I don’t remember a year that has seemed to slip by so swiftly.

Back in January, I went on an Arvon workshop called Magic and Transformation at Totleigh Barton in Devon. The course, run by Helen Ivory and Jess Mookherjee was amazing not least for the teaching and the company but also the place itself.  I came away with my head buzzing with images, a profound encounter with a hare, and a confusion of words.  

I gradually realised that if I went to Totleigh again I wouldn’t write, I’d want to be going out into the landscape breathing it in and painting, drawing, taking photographs. 

So I am directing my focus back to responding to the world solely with brush and camera. In effect I am giving myself more time after several years of working on books to go back to my roots and I am aware of a curious feeling of relief in having made that decision.

I am proud to have written and had published The Star Tree, a children’s lullaby picture book (Frances Lincoln), The Hare and The Moon and The Bee and The Sun (Zephyr), two almanac folklore calendar books and finally Darkling, The Owl’s Song (Apollo/Bloomsbury) an original poem accompanied by a series of paintings following the owl’s journey through the liminal places between dusk and dawn.

To have produced these books has been a massive achievement and would not have been possible without having had the opportunity to paint and illustrate works for Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Morris, Saviour Pirotta and Lauren St John all of which stretched me in new ways, enabling me to explore the craft of word and image and gave me the courage to do the whole lot myself.

As part of this allowing myself more time I am also going to be limiting the card and calendar sales from my shop and will be directing customers towards the shops and galleries who supply my John Austin cards and Love from the Artist. 

My studio is now separate from my print room and is purely about the painting and creating, the only distraction being the call of the teapot and the need to go out in to the landscape.