Since September 2022 I’ve been looking for structural ideas from various sources, including a Paddle plant 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, or not. Actually a fascinating task to unknow something.
The first two sources were a Paddle plant and some sprouting spuds on a plate. This third source is charged with history and a wee dollop of nostalgia – our three boy’s old shoes found nestling in a drawer in my studio.

Image 01 – “Three Pairs 15:06pm 23/02/23” 23cm x 23cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 02 – “Three Pairs 14:28pm 27/02/23” 32cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 03 – “Three Pairs 14:28pm 27/02/23” 32cm x 24cm – inks, acrylic & crayon on Centenaire cotton paper 300g/m2

Image 04 – Three pairs of shoes

Image 05 – Three pairs of shoes

Image 06 – ‘Q Polaroids’