Sketchbooks

Paintings

Purchasing

Psappha Portraits

National Portraits

Piano Preludes

Birdsong Bagatelles

Gaia

INhabitAT

Betwixt and Between

Le Gorge du Tarn

Nymphaeas

My sketchbooks represent several stages in the progress towards writing a piece of music. Usually the first stage is a straight drawing of what I am looking at, but this is quickly followed by analytical drawings that deal with formal and dynamic features of the landscape I have already recorded. I often make simultaneous notes of the sounds in those landscapes. These sonic notations are either in the form of drawings of the shapes and behaviours of natural sounds or direct musical transcriptions of natural sound.

What follows is usually a series of sketches that combine pictorial and sonic notations - even textual notations taken from ‘field-work’ sessions. My sketches have been described as having a powerful connection with mediaeval manuscripts. I wouldn’t doubt that, but they are also akin to the sketchbooks of Leonardo and Paul Klee. My sketches are intended to be as ‘noisy’ as they are visual.  Inasmuch as they remain primers for my musical imagination, they may also act as primers or ’maps’ for any would-be listener to my music!

Many of my sketchbook drawings are now available as limited edition (50) artist’s prints, each numbered and signed. They are printed on Arches 100% cotton digital fine art paper with an 8 colour archival pigment ink system. All prints are A3 size (30 x 42 cm). The quality of the images on this site are naturally low, however the prints are superb in every way and offer an insight into my musical/visual world.