Monk
An Invitation to Pause
‘Monk Seeks Quiet’ (2026)
Ink on Watercolour Paper
84cm x 60cmMonk is a simple, enigmatic figure.
He appears in many of my pictures, created from a single stroke of red ink, supplemented with four small black marks.
He provides a still, contemplative centre to a shifting, organic, unknowable world.
He embodies watchful calm.
‘Monk’s Winter Journey’ (2025)
Ink on Watercolour Paper
42cm x 60cmMost often Monk appears in paper-based works, a defined figure amid swirling and amorphous surreal landscapes. His presence creates a tension between the dynamism of the landscape and the stillness of the watcher.
Sometimes Monk migrates to other worlds and surfaces - speciality papers, minimal landscapes, canvas, or canvas board. Sometimes he appears in pieces created with homemade inks on speciality papers, intersecting with work on the Global Local Project.
Always he represents an invitation to the viewer - to pause, to wait, to question. Monk does not create answers, he provokes curiosity and a sense a connection.
'Monk Takes Shade' (2026)
Ink on Handmade Paper from Bhutan
16cm x 28cm
'Monk Climbs' (2026)
Homemade Ink on recycled cotton-rag paper handmade in India
16cm x 28cmMonk is inspired by figures occasionally found in East Asian art - distant Buddhist monks wandering solitary through the landscape.
I wanted to create the simplest possible contemporary version of the eternal spiritual explorer. Whether inside a flowing surreal landscape or a stripped back minimal one, Monk is a still centre. He invites the viewer to pause and contemplate, to make some sense from this unknowable world.
Detail from ‘Monk and the Storm Clouds’ (2026)
Ink on Watercolour Paper
'Monk Waits' (2026)
Ink on Canvas
30cm x 42cmArtist’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