The Studio Collection

My next exhibition at the Pinkfoot Gallery starts on the 21st September 2023, you can view here – The Studio Collection

The land around my studio has me trapped and mesmerised. After years of creating a natural landscape, the creatures and vegetation within it have me under their spell, becoming the subject of my work. A visiting sparrow hawk is framed by the studio doors one day as it rests and preens. The flowering plants explode like slow motion fireworks, feeding butterflies, hawk-moths and bees. The foxes come to search and dig and the birds breed in the hollows. It is a small slice of North Norfolk and a world of its own. The owls, hares, deer etc all come, they give birth and rear their young and travel through -I’m entranced by it, watching the seasons and the changes and the shaping of nature..

623 Warm Colours of a Deer in the Wood, Lockwood, 40.7×50.7cm oil board 

2021

July 2021

From looking towards the skies, I’m now heading back into the forest to work on a new series to study life within the trees. I’ll post more news in the following months.

Woodlands

 

Night Movements on the Field, oil on linen, 100x125cm 

above: One of the four paintings I  have  on show in the Natural Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London. 24th October – 3rd November 2019

Currently I’m working on a new collection of works based around the woodland and creatures that exist within them. 

Ghost Owl

Ghost Owl

6 – 21 July 2019, Pinkfoot Gallery, Cley

This story began when my resident Barn owls  nested next to my studio. For three months I watched the parents as they tended the nest; I observed three chicks grow and explore the landscape until the day came when they didn’t return. 

Young Owls Waiting III, Blue Light, 46x55cml, oil on board

Ruff and Baby, 39x49cm, oil on board

Young Owl Preparing, 38.5x46cm, oil on board

A Third Baby, 41x49cm, oil on board

 

Young Owl Waiting IV, 38.5x46cm, oil on board

Three Young Owls Waiting, 50x61cm, oil on linen 

Young Owls Waiting II,  38x46cm, oil on board

Owl preparing, sketch on paper

Owl Stretching, sketch on paper

Natural Instincts

CC2 Sketch Lockwood

CC4 sketch lockwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four months ago Sarah and I picked up a jackdaw. We thought she would fly away after filling her with food but she now owns us! We are her parents who woke up at 5.30am for feeds and fretted when she first flew away from us. We have been staying in a makeshift home on three acres of land, where she is free to come and go. Sarah thinks we have been rewilded as the jackdaw has taken us further into her world; there is little access to the internet here and I feel a calmness after the initial battle against not engaging with the social media world – I have been disconnected!

Instead I have gorged myself on home grown tomatoes that the jackdaw and I watched and watered daily. She would sit on my shoulder and walk down my arm to study me snipping and tying them up. I would stand by her as she bathed in a shallow red clay bowl, protecting her from the marsh harriers, buzzards, sparrowhawks and cats that constantly swooped and crawled through the land to find her; she always had one eye watching out for them as they knew she was here. Often she would make me realise they were nearby, even before I could see them – her instincts are good.

I think her awareness was transferred a little and I feel another side of my instincts have been more finely tuned. In my work I find this is essential. I want to gather the essence of the environment around me. I find a lot of solace in the natural world but I’m also interested in the world that we are creating within it.

I don’t want to lose my instincts; I want to tune in and be able to capture a moment in my work that will show the light, weather or a feeling. I think it is the cleverer subconscious mind that I trust to gather that information, I think that this is where our natural instincts sit and watch over us.

Bathers II 97x127cm oil linen Lockwood

Bathers II, oil on linen 97x127cm  (this painting is one of four listed here that has been selected by The Society of Wildlife Artist’s annual show at the Mall Galleries, London)  Catching birds relaxing on a private area of marsh. I had an idea building for a painting when watching this scene. I wanted to capture their block forms in these sketches.

duck sketches 1 lockwoodspoonbill sketches 2

332 Raw Marsh 97x127cm linen lockwood

Raw Marsh, oil on linen 97x127cm   I’m trying to capture the cold, gritty rawness of the marsh here in Cley. This is how I feel sitting in the marsh hide, especially when the North wind is blowing in. I try to remember the information to take back to my studio, this painting is about memories of what I’ve just seen. I didn’t make any working sketches for some of these paintings. I want to rely on my senses and what my mind remembers.

 

Bathers I 97x127cm oil on linen Lockwood

Bathers I, oil on linen 97x127cm  I have a friend in North Norfolk who’s reverted 200 acres of farmland into a nature reserve near Holkham. After each visit, I return to my studio to download my memories onto canvas. I try to recreate the passing of time and movement of creatures that move within the space and how the mind sees through one object to fill in the form of another.

328 Pool Movement, Life Between the Reeds lockwood lo

Pool Movement, Life Between The Reeds, oil on linen 97x127cm   The light in Cley can be dramatic, glowing reeds and cracked dark spaces where the birds hide.

 

 

 

2017

328 Pool Movement, Life Between the Reeds lockwood lo

I’ve been taking some time out from delivering new paintings to galleries to develop my work. I’m still busy producing and hope to show my new pieces when I have a collection. I’m working on the movement of light and creatures on the marsh and pools from Rye to Cley Reserves.

Wildling Exhibition & Book Launch

I’ve been working towards a major exhibition  at the Pinkfoot Gallery in Cley, Norfolk. Wildling opens at 12pm on the 23nd October 2016. The definition of Wildling is: “A wild plant or animal, especially a wild plant transplanted to a cultivated spot.”  The exhibition and book is a collection of my work exploring the animal form and its belonging or place within its environment.

60 Edge of the Estate - Lockwood 107x255cm (2pc) oil on linen (deer)

Red Hare Publishing have been working with me to make a beautiful, limited edition book to accompany the exhibition. As well as the final oil paintings, we’ve included field sketches and working drawings. The book will be launched at the exhibition on 23nd October 2016.