Since moving back to Wales almost 5 years ago, after many years of working in stone I have at last returned to working in wood which was my preferred medium while I was at Art college.  I work most often in oak and have drawn my inspiration from the history within Pembrokeshire where I live.  This, and a deep love for the area where I grew up, have a great influence on my work, and the wood forms I make have a focus on stillness and peace, inspired by standing stones, archaeology and ruined castles. Standing within these castle ruins, I am aware of a sense of peace and time standing still; an atmosphere which pervades these old buildings and which I aim for in my sculptures.

While a sense of peace is the main emphasis in my work, I often sit quietly looking back to the battles that took place there – and my thoughts turn to the conflicts of war and peace, aggression and calm, despair and hope, darkness and light – contrasts that I have started to include in my most recent sculptures to reflect memories of the battles and struggles which happened back then, and of course, still do today.

These are the themes of my work; towers and pillars carved to illustrate endurance through the ages with their weathered textures and darkened quiet archways, blade forms to denote the battles that took place. The archways are often charred to a soft velvety blackness to disappear into, like a safe haven, whereas the heavy areas of texture illustrate struggle and friction of war through a more aggressive surface, light in some areas to illustrate hope and breakthrough, dark in others.  

I like my work to be about interacting, being affected by the space that surrounds each work or flows around and between the pairs of works that stand together. I want to take people into a different atmosphere for a while.  I make these sculptures to be absorbed into that stillness, whether it is being immersed in several floor standing forms or just one silent presence up on a plinth.  An escape into a moment of calm and pensive quiet.  My hope is that others will experience my work in the same way.