About The Artist

Where I lived and grew up as a child, there were two farms in the vicinity of my parent's house; one was literally opposite our home whilst the other farm was situated five minutes around the corner, and from an early age, I felt a connection to the land, the surrounding landscape and my place within it.

Twilight was fast approaching one Tuesday evening when walking across local meadows with my dad and Rex, the family dog; I was five years old and as we walked, I would watch the trees line up in harmony with each other, making mental notes as to their symmetry within the surrounding landscape, silhouetted as they were against the orange glow of the sodium street lights. The words "be an artist" dropped into my head and I knew that was what I would do with my life.

Jumping forward to teenage years, I witnessed many bands whilst regularly attending the Russell Club (Factory) in Hulme, as well as other inner city venues in Manchester, that gave both inspiration and a feel for the city’s landscape & psychogeography; Joy Division, Public Image and later, the first warehouse gig in the city featuring the Stone Roses, were events that made me think as to how to approach & direct my own talent for art, and to think on a bigger, more focused scale. By the time New Order played at the Squat in early September 1980, I'd made my mind up - to concentrate on art and to use the influence of those bands I'd witnessed climbing up onto the stage to play, as fuel for my own direction.

Turning 23 years old, I started producing paintings that combined my own real-life experiences within the surrounding suburban landscape, which continued to develop during the 1980s, 1990s and eventually into the early part of the millennium, commencing a series of paintings under the moniker “JourneyBoy”, eventually completing the theme in 2013. Continuing to use personal life situations, and combining them with certain imagery relevant within each theme, I painted ‘emotional photographs’, each work being a symbolic reference point to events, places & people in my life.

More recent works, notably those exhibited at “QUIETUS” show in 2018, were inspired by regular trips to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides made several years before, my days spent walking across the peat moor landscape to various sites around Callanish, noting the relation of the standing stones & circles to the land.

It was the following year after "QUIETUS" that I changed direction within my work; taking an experimental piece of artwork on a 'scrub board' depicting the sea and movement of the waves, I began a series of monochrome seascapes, allegorically exploring my feelings of trauma and isolation within the motion & character of the waters, each painting depicting an 'emotional photograph' of where I was within my own life and recovery. 

Simultaneously, I recognised that I needed to meet new people and cheer up, so I took up street art with friends, and using spray paint, began depicting the continuous-changing Mancunian cityscape on concrete walls, painting thirty images over a 4-year period in various locations within Manchester. Obtaining studio space in 2023, I fused this subject matter with my fine art experience and continue to develop and refine new works under the moniker "Six".

"....collapses the boundaries between realism and surrealism."

"...it's over a year since the Quietus show, but I'm thrilled about the new LAMW site and your work within it which truly reflects a recovery journey."

"Your collection of those paintings shouldn't disappear. The images sit in my memory, and that's good they have their own existence. Not lost into other things I've seen in art."

"...found some of your paintings very haunting.."

".... they had a brooding outsider feel to them, as well as an unsettling bleakness, but balanced with a sort of visual escape be it blue sky or billowing cloud walls."