I’ve spent my life immersed in performance, education, creativity and art.
For three decades that mainly meant theatre: I performed, directed shows and taught all around the world.
It was an extraordinary time - though there was a cost. I burned out and encountered serious ill-health.
Now, recovered, I live in remote Ireland - in a tumble-down house near the sea.
My focus is writing, coaching and painting.
I’m growing a forest in my garden. There’s over a hundred trees now, and thick hedgerows laden with berries shelter the birds.
I paint to create calm and space - in my mind and in the world. My dearest hope is that you’ll want to pause for a few moments with these paintings and remember how wonderful this world can be.
Artist’s Statement
Painting is practical and physical - a conversation between my body and the materials I work with.
It's an investigation into physical choices: different ways of applying ink or paint, different gestures, different consistencies of ink and paint, different sorts of paper.
To paint I must calm my mind and relax my body. I open myself to the materials, the tools, and the surface I’m working on. If I’m distracted, the work I create will be unfocused or superficial.
Painting is a mental discipline as much as a physical one.
Painting, like performance (my previous career) combines fearless creation with spontaneous editing. Anything is possible. Not everything is useful.
I never know how a finished painting will look when I start it. Painting is a conversation between me and the materials.
I don’t finish a painting. The viewer does. I don’t control a viewer’s response. I’ve completed my work when the ink has dried and the picture is framed.
I hope you experience the calm, curiosity and humanity of my process, but that’s not within my control.
Respectfully, I leave it up to you.
CV
2026
Organised and exhibited in Fanad Creatives Exhibition at Fanad Head Lighthouse
Took sole occupancy of studio in The Courthouse, Bushmills
Established Fanad Inks
‘The Art of Calm: Painting With Ink’ - Workshop, Bushmills
2025
Group exhibition ‘Garden of Earthly Delight’, Derry, UK
Initiated ‘Global Localism’ project - local, handmade, speciality materials across borders
Took shared occupancy of studio in The Courthouse, Bushmills
Six-week funded course on ‘The Art of Calm: Painting With Inks’: Fanad
Group exhibition ‘Coast’ at Fort Dunree, Co. Donegal - with Donegal Visual Arts Network
Published ‘Everyday Encouragement’
2024
Established Fanad Art
2010 - 2022
Artistic Director of DUENDE and THE DUENDE SCHOOL OF ENSEMBLE PHYSICAL THEATRE
Published ‘How To Teach Performance’, ‘Climbing The Mountain’, ‘Presence’, ‘Encountering Ensemble’
2004-2010
Senior Lecturer (Drama) & MA Course Leader, University of Huddersfield (UK)
1997-2004
Freelance Performer, Director & Teacher, Australia
1988 - 1997
Freelance Performer, Director & Teacher, UK
1988
MA Theatre Studies, Leeds University, UK