A Dream of Amsterdam:

From the start of my residency at AGA I had been told many stories about Amsterdam which sparked my imagination. In particular I realised I had arrived in the middle of a season of festivity and parades. The time between St Martens’s Day and the Parade of St Nicholas now seems to me to be a time in which many strange things can happen, yet no one thinks such things are strange! Working in the studio in the evenings I also began to wonder what was going on in the streets outside whilst all the people were snug in doors. I started to think of the streets as little islands in the canals – islands of the night where evolution had resulted in life taking on a different guise – the realm of the creatures of the streets and canals, birds, horses, dogs, rats, ghosts and skeletons. I decided I wanted to make a street scene, a parade of my own to capture this atmosphere.

Work in Progress:

My project at AGA has opened up what for me is a new way of working. I knew I had only a little time to get results and as an illustrator the drawings and etchings I make tend to be slow, small and precise. So, here in Amsterdam I was forced by necessity to experiment with faster photographic techniques and a looser approach to drawing. I chose to make the backgrounds for my prints from pinhole camera images, which I hope give an air of mystery and darkness. The drawings of the animals and skeletons were made on drafting film. The resulting paper negatives and positives were then scanned and composited on the computer and printed as continuous tone films. These films were then exposed onto photopolymer plates for handprinting. Back in England the editioning begins.

Text from Exhibition: Held in AGA Passage Gallery:

Maybe people outside peering in at this presentation in the passage will also see through the windows a glimpse of a winter parade...Perhaps the windows will make the space a theatre.. Perhaps you are now part of the scene...

Work in Progress Video AGA December 2007