I am a British artist whose work explores the history of places and people through portraits, landscapes and abstraction, and seeks to uncover the essential nature of historical subjects, including famous personages, significant places and events, often set in their...
Read MoreI am a British artist whose work explores the history of places and people through portraits, landscapes and abstraction, and seeks to uncover the essential nature of historical subjects, including famous personages, significant places and events, often set in their past context, using oil paint and mixed media. I have a Diploma in Oil Painting from the Norfolk School of Painting, and have exhibited in solo and group shows in London and Cambridge, UK.
As a lecturer in medieval Spanish history and culture at the University of Cambridge, where I taught until 2020, I wrote books that focused on Spain’s vexed past as both a Christian and Islamic country, that aimed to reveal an alternative history shaped by its ambiguous identity. The crystallization of these ideas in my writing coincided with a sea-change in my evolution as an artist. As a Diploma graduate of the Norfolk Painting School run by the acclaimed British artist Martin Kinnear, I seriously reconsidered my artistic aims, and was drawn to the idea of painting history through specific people, places and events.
My work explores the close relationship between writing and art, using the profound inspiration of European history, and artistic influences both medieval and modern, to give shape to my vision. I use tools and techniques designed to rethink the genre of history painting and express an interpretation of the past in the language of contemporary visual art. My vision is to bring the past alive in the present using both traditional and innovative techniques in composition, use of colour and mark-making to create a compelling visual narrative.
