Manchester Art Fair — November 2024

In November 2024 I exhibited at the Manchester Art Fair, held at Manchester Central. The fair is one of the UK's most ambitious art events, showcasing modern and contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography, and editioned prints from a wide range of UK and international galleries. It attracts a large and diverse audience over three days, and the scale and variety of the work on show make it a stimulating context in which to exhibit.

'The White Trees' 64 x 78 cm Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas

The Work on Show

The paintings I brought to Manchester were drawn from my recent studio work — landscapes in oil and cold wax that explore the forest and fenland subjects that have been central to my practice for many years. The works are characterised by their rich, layered surfaces: built up through successive applications of paint and medium, then scraped back, incised, and reworked to reveal depth and texture.

The fair offered an opportunity to show these paintings to a new audience in a different part of the country, and to engage directly with visitors about the process and materials behind them. The response to the work was encouraging, and the conversations that took place around the paintings were, as always, one of the most rewarding aspects of exhibiting.

'The Crossing' 130 x 100 x 4 cm Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas

'La Foret Volatile' 90 x 90 cm Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas

Manchester Art Fair

Manchester Art Fair has established itself as a significant event in the British art calendar, bringing together galleries and artists from across the country and further afield. The venue — Manchester Central, a converted railway station — provides a dramatic and generous setting for the display of contemporary work, and the city's engaged and culturally curious public makes it a particularly rewarding context in which to show new paintings.

'A Deeper Blue' 130 x 120 Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas