Monk 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 60cm

Most 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 Seeks Quiet’ (2026)
Ink on Watercolour Paper
84cm x 60cm

Monk 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