Since September 2022 I’ve been looking for structural ideas from various sources for a larger work called Q Polaroids, collection of polaroids taken by me and my son Jules, during Covid quarantine in Stirling Scotland. Essentially I had found myself staring too hard and too literally at this still life of polaroids and had come to a standstill.
To free myself of the block and change my approach entirely, I decided to imagine them as something I’d never seen before, possibly from the perspective of an archeologist way in the future. I started to imagine that maybe they were something more organic, possibly from the natural world. Actually a fascinating task to unknow something.
The first source was a Paddle plant, a plant I walked past everyday to the studio, seemed the ideal candidate with its lack of symmetry and cluster of leaves expressing personal histories. The next contender, which I studied over several weeks, became some sprouting spuds on my mother-in-law, Maïté’s, pewter plate.

Image 01 – “New Potatoes 15:41pm 15/02/23” 36cm x 36cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 02 – “Sprouting Spuds 16:41pm 27/01/23” 24cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 03 – “Sprouting Spuds 15:17pm 30/01/23” 24cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 04 – “Sprouting Spuds 18:06pm 30/01/23” 24cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 05 – “New Potatoes 16:01pm 13/02/23” 24cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 06 – “New Potatoes 16:38pm 13/02/23” 24cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 07 – “New Potatoes 15:05pm 15/02/23” 36cm x 36cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 08 – ‘Q Polaroids’

Image 09 – ‘Q Polaroids’ (2022) WIP – 170cm x 153cm – pigment and porcelain slip on plywood panel