After completing the degree in architectural technology I did a further MA in Architectural and Urban design.
After finding screen printing was no longer viable for me due to ageing and unable to handle the weights or cold I gave up my studio at Red Herring.
After completing my MA in 2006 I had a studio at Red Herring an artists co-operative with a building in Hove. Red Herring has been a studio co-operative for the last thirty odd years in Brighton and provides good cheap communal space. My studio was well equipped with screen bed, exposure unit and associated equipment and two large kilns.
I enjoyed my period at Red Herring but it was cold and I found that I could not cope with the physical needs of working with glass which is heavy and large.
My MA changed my work extensively and I started to be far more of a glass maker rather than just a screen printer who printed onto glass.
For my MA degree show piece I produced a model of a glass labyrinth. The work consists of glass panels with screen printed waterslide decals which have been fired, fused and slumped as well as some digitally produced.
I have over the years proposed the installation of a glass labyrinth in various locations and other glass sculpture as part of MA projects. I include a very small selection.
During my degree I started to print onto glass. Given the limitations of equipment, I screen printed onto waterslide decals with ceramic enamels and then fired and slumped these in a kiln onto glass.
Like the work I did for my MA this work is about that which you cannot fully see and the limited ways that we understand and communicate between ourselves.
I was going around the RA summer show and thinking that I had more interesting pictures of redundant buildings that the ones on show. Both of these relate to places of special interest to me. The West Pier is something that I remember clearly from my childhood and think of its loss is a loss of part of my childhood. Likewise the Shoreham Cement works which we used to see when we came to visit my grandparents.
I didn't do much artwork for many years after ceasing the design work I did for Gwen Leigh Design. I worked in the City and ran a large company as a Chartered Accountant. After cutting back my workload on moving to Brighton and mainly teaching accountancy I started to do lots of life drawing. I felt this insufficient and did foundation and then a degree and subsequently a masters in art..
Gwen Leigh Design was a successful design practice I ran with my mother. My mother was a very capable artist and carried on working until Alzheimer's struck. For several years after completing my degree in Psychology from Swansea - I helped her. I feel proud for the work we did. The Beefeater by the Tower, a banqueting suite, has hardly been changed although done over 40 years ago.
I still do life drawing on a regular basis but do not consider it as a major part of my art practice. It is simply an exercise - drawing practice - which like most do not like the majority of the results.