Blue Ridge Mountains

'That's why they're called the Blue Ridge Mountains' I thought. I walked a long way with this bird, I wanted to leave it at Raven's Peak, close to Cheroke. There is nothing more to say when we see the view.

Wood Cabin

Perfection is not beauty. A painting I did taken from Pennsylvania and Maryland sketches. The dappled light that filters through leaves in woods finds gaps in country barn timbers.

Appalachian Trial

It's scarey to be lost in the night, sometimes things don't turn out how you expect. There is always a different way. I lost my money in Florida and had to Camp throught the Appalachian mountains back to Allentown, Pennsylvania. To be on the side of a mountain in the woods with bears and no people is not what we're used to in England. Sometimes there is no imagination, I've learnt to draw in the dark... (The dawn was so pretty).

Let it Brew

Bardstown Kentucky, is the place for bourbon. It's similar to Scotch in that, with the risk of sounding like a guiness advert, there are not many things left in life that are not simulated to save time. Wiskey, Wood Worries and Wisdom benefit from the eb and flow of seasons at work. I visited Jim Beam, Maker's Mark and Heaven Hill. After learning about yeast and burnt caskets I camped with my bottle of Elija Craig.

Porch Painting

I've always been welcomed in Nashville, is it a cliche because it is true. We painted on the Porch in the sun and there was nothing to think about.
Thankyou to my friend Ruby for being so hospitibal, she is a wonderful singer and songwriter. see myspace.com/samandruby

Bird Watch

The feeling is less, but still remains. To see the creature, its colours and its shape you have studied on a page, now with its own character, now alive. We can still be bird watchers just by noticing. On this East American drive Birds I saw that are not or seldom seen in Britain are. Redwinged Blackbird, Turkey Vulture, Cardinal, Red Tailed Hawk, Sharpshinned Hawk, Grackle, Mockingbird, Tufted Titmouse, Cormorant (looks different), Osprey, White Heron, Great Egret, Chickadee, Downey Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Black Skimmer, Brown Pelican, White Pelican, Boat Tailed Grackle, Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, Spoonbill, Flamingo, Black Vulture.

Savannah Summer

Savannah, Georgia. A ghost town. What history. There is something you miss about age when you spend time in new cities, it is hard to define, but it is the same reason that trees and shorelines give peace, because our existence has grown with them. Thanks to my friend Summer Welch for showing me round. He is in a great band called Baroness and congractulations to John Dyer Baizley for his beautiful artwork.

Santee

I take a pad with me, some beautiful things don't stick if your mind doesn't want it. I stopped at the Santee Wildlife reserve in South Carolina for a break from driving, I met Eulander here, she took a break everyday here after work before she went to the craziness of home. She stuck, she'd found something good.

Tyme Gallery Exhibition, in Havertown, Philadelphia. I did say I'd put 'the J's' on my blog. So here you are. Thankyou to the tireless Edna and her soon to be published husband.

I painted this series of my friends hut in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Fashion Shoot.

NY Fashion shoot by www.emilybleasdale.com, I like to do backdrops, its nice to do artistic work for a specifc purpose, giving imagination boundaries can bring a different creativity to the surface.

Sharp Shinned Hawk

This Hawk watched me whilst I made a bird cast in Pennsylvania. I am English so a hawk still has a certain awe. There is something that happens in time being around some creatures, the world they inhabit is something lost in our minds that we were once a part of.

'I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet,
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.' Ted Hughes

Snow shadows

You have to remember to look up when walking. Sometimes we star at our feet in life. Aren't these snow shadows beautiful.

Dear Dairy

I'm lucky enough to have outdoor friends. You see things that your brain does not expect on walks. Weird is normal now, like films and tatoos, like our dreams. Ordinary dreams are harder to decipher, unusual combinations of the ordinary in life make pictures in our memory. What were those cheap ice lolly's called? Milkies? I used to get a 99er! or possibly the big feast.

The king and I

Darts is great. (at the Lakeside) It's like a kids Christmas party for drunks! This is Kong. He's going to be big. Well he's already big. but he's going to do well I mean.

Slow Grown

These volcanic rock formations have inspired recent work and I the colours I see in nature are a constant reference . I take time with sculptures and paintings, I want sculptures to have 'eroded' and paintings to 'grow', in this way time becomes a part of them, like slow grown wood or evolution, they are stronger creative pieces.

bare essentials

The joys of naked hill walking.

GUMS II

This years kayak trip was to the Isle of Mull, West Coast of Scotland. Within the first hour of being on the Water I had seen a Golden Eagle and an otter, two of my childhood dream sightings. The trip continued with views of the magnificent Sea Eagle, pygmy shews and the woderfully inquististive basking sharks. It is difficult to imagine the size of these fish, the best way I can describe a basking shark travelling beneath you in kayak is think JAWS, (without the teeth...crucially).

Rubbish Sculpture

This too in Norfolk… a ‘rubbish sculpture’. I presume it is to collect the plastic, non-biodegradable materials from spoiling the coastline. I felt inspired to add a favourable blog on this in the hope it might maroon itself on a mind and be repeated on a ‘defaced’ beach somewhere.

Broad Daylight

On my second trip to the Norfolk Broads I understood that perhaps what was so pleasing about the boat hire was an enforced 3mph speed limit. After spending so much time in London it certainly teaches you a thing or three about pace, and a pace that brings a quality not only to time but to the thoughts in time.