Ghost Worlds

In the 1935 film, the Frankenstein monster is welcomed into the home of a blind hermit. In this drawing the hermit's table is formed by a pencil rubbing of my eyedrop packaging (complete with Braille label). On the table is a representation of the tiny eyedrop bottle itself.

This drawing is inspired by a dream experienced by my wife in which I appeared to be conquering my life-long fear of cattle. The pencil rubbing is of the foil container of my beta blocker tablets.

Referencing the first version of the painting Puberty (1894-95) by Edvard Munch, I look back to my teenage years and remember the inspiring 1976 Olympic achievements of my near exact contemporary, fourteen year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci. As an adult Comăneci spoke of the harshness of the East European training regimes and became noted for leading a refugee group across challenging terrain to escape the then tryanny of her native country.

Shortly after Cumbrian born artist Sheila Fell's death in 1979, aged just forty-eight, she was quoted in an article written by Hunter Davies: "I ... intend to live till 104. I've promised myself I will. It's what keeps me going. I worry if I'll ever have time to do all the paintings in my head." The pencil rubbing is of an historic leaded window.

What are we artists really attempting to capture? In the mirror I have depicted the North Sea coast at Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, the place where I was born and grew up, and where L. S. Lowry spent many of his adult summer holidays. Lowry was a friend and mentor of artist Sheila Fell (above).

This is a very accurate depiction of the view I see in a mirror when using just my right eye.

A contemporary new-born baby is held by the historic character JR, played in the long-running TV series (1978-1991) Dallas by Larry Hagman (1931-2012). The circle of life.

Heirloom doll, handed down through the family of my wife. Probably originally a pin cushion (c.Nineteenth Century).

Sir Thomas Allen as Don Giovanni, La Scala 1987. An imagined depiction of the character's arrival in hell (not a scene actually featured in the opera).

I have based this drawing on a painting hanging at Isel Hall, Cumbria, where I occasionally act as a guide, and where I live above the historic stables next door. I like to think Chieftan might once have been living and breathing directly beneath my bedroom floor.

This drawing is based on an archive photograph. Mary Burkett (1924-2014) was Director of Abbot Hall Gallery in Kendal from 1966 to 1986 and was a great champion of artists and the arts across North West England.

Picasso's lost painting was probably not a self-portrait as in my drawing: the hat-wearing artist in the original was thin-faced and bearded. Only one tiny fragment of Picasso's artwork is rumoured to have been found following the loss of Swissair flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia.

We are all bit parts in this great movie called life.

Ferdinand Hodler - Swiss artist (1853-1918), best known for his mountain landscapes. This drawing is from a photograph taken in 1917. Whilst war was raging across Europe, Hodler was mourning the death of his lover and growing increasingly ill in Geneva. Despite all, he continued to paint tranquil scenes of Lake Geneva from his balcony. How many beautiful Alpine mountainsides these faithful old boots once tramped across in happier, more active times is unknown.

Django Reinhardt defied his humble Romani origins to become an international jazz guitar star. Surviving both being almost burned to death in a Romani wagon fire and the anti-Romani persecutions of Nazi-occupied France, he succumbed to a brain hemorrhage in 1953 aged just 43.

Artist Gwen John (1876-1939) was both a model and a lover for sculptor Auguste Rodin. This drawing is based on a photograph taken in Rodin's studio and includes pencil rubbings of modern-day stone carving. The image also references my own double vision.

I was looking for a photograph of Andy Warhol before he started wearing the trademark grey-white wigs, but happened upon a captivating image of Warhol's mother. This drawing celebrates her own impressive hairstyle.

Artwork in memory of deciding to miss attending a Schubert recital because of "Storm Amy" (03/10/25). This drawing also references my bizaare visual disturbance of sometimes seeing people in the street appearing to be missing heads or feet.