Exhibitions and Galleries

Verriales 2025 - ODESSEY

Life as an artist is an Odessey, a journey that starts young as a desire to draw and make things and use your imagination. It can then take you on to an exploration of new ideas and techniques. As you acquire these new skills it opens a world of art and artists, some of whom become friends.

And so, the Odessey begins, taking you on to travel to new lands meet new people and acquire more new friends. All the time you are absorbing more information and ideas to feed your imagination and to develop your work. It is a lifetime journey of discovery

The world is now interlaced with war and destruction and introspection by world leaders without thought for others and our environment.

We, as onlookers’ despair at the situation that has developed and as a society we lose focus on the bigger picture, a world that is threatened by climate change.

This series tries to draw our attention to a planet in distress while paying homage to the work and thoughts of the artist Rene Magritte.

Whilst some of my figurative forms have been androgenous, I have mainly concentrated on the male figure and have always been slightly nervous about depicting the female form. This is because, up until now the themes I have been dealing with and the questions I have been asking, have gone through a thought process from a man’s perspective.

With The Unstable Pedestal and Venus Off Balance pieces I have turned, for the first time, to the female figure and themes about women’s place in society today.

Throughout history the position of women in our civilisation has often been a troubled story of abuse and exploitation. So, with these pieces I question whether this situation has changed and are women as vulnerable as ever?

Fairness and balance in society is still more of a problem for women than men.

Looking beyond our own society, the world situation is much worse and women’s position in life becomes even more insecure and disturbing.

To portray my feelings about this mismatch in humanity I have set the figure slightly off balance, giving her an unsteadiness and awkwardness indicating vulnerability.

During the modelling process I play with ideas around the iconography of the female form and a skewed sense of insecurity.

They are not fragile feminine forms but strong totems or effigies, with a certain dignity but, nevertheless, strangely off balance and vulnerable.

The longer you look the more you see. As an artist observation is a very important part of the process of making art. Working with the figure you become aware of the importance of body language and how a glance and the position of the head can say a lot. In these pieces I explore curiosity and how we should think and look in more detail to understand the truth of a situation. It is easy to accept what we are told at face value but look a bit deeper and you find and understand more. It is all in the detail.

These are cast glass and wood sculptures by David Reekie with flameworked pieces by Glenn Godden.

There are still many frontiers to cross and around the world many societies seem as divided as ever. In some situations, physical walls have been built and more are being made and planned by people who want to divide us rather than bring us together.

Within this piece of work, I show a somewhat empathetic rejection between the two figures who seem to refuse to agree and talk but there is a feeling of conciliation is in the air.

There are far too many divisions in the world both social, political, and religious, some are age old conflicts which seem to have no resolution. This piece is a softer form of rejection an optimistic piece where bridges can be made, and differences resolved.

We are living in a troubled world where anger, cruelty, self-interest, and injustice are driving people from their homes. Unfortunately, this has always been the case from time immemorial and for many reasons we seem unable to live peacefully with each other.

We have just lived through a period where being at home was the safest place and caring for each other was the way to get through the pandemic. But even so conflict and flight were always in the background and for may the idea of a home was just a dream.

We are now living through another conflict in Ukraine and images of displaced people losing their homes are being etched on our minds

In these pieces that idea of a home, a place to live in peace, is something to cherish.