I currently live and reside in North Devon, England having returned after traveling in Morocco, Portuagal and Spain for ten months from Sept 2025 to June 2026. At present I am in the process of bringing together and assimulating the reflections, observations and experiences from the journal entries I made during this adventure into a book form, watch this space.
The different themes here reflect the different seasons in life, I hope some of them resonate and strike a chord with you.
Here are some words to give some background and context to them and myself.
I was inspired at a young age by the works of Leonardo Da Vinci particularily his figurative and anotomical studies. There was also Vincent Van Gough's paintings, his bold expressive use of juxtaposed colours and themes, his love of nature and the dignity ordinary rural labourers and people.
Some water colour classes with the artist John Hoar, https://www.jhoar.com/ in South Molton made a lasting impression and which can be seen in the works, Devon, England. It was through John that I made the connection with a friend of their family, the artist Ken Paine who later on while at Roehampton University I joined for some of his life drawing classes in Twickenham. You can see his work here:
https://www.simonowcollection.com/additional-artist/ken-paine
In later teenage years I came across a great big fat book on Picasso, his life and works that encompassed almost all his entire output. The melancholy of his Blue period, the circus and performers of the Rose period, the Surrealist works and in his later years the Artist and model themes all struck chords by their daring, versitility and essential simplicity. One of my first responses was to make many rapid studies and copies of these works as a way to enter into them more deeply.
London and University at Roehampton 2000-2004 studying Art and Philosophy was a watershed experience. These two subjects dove-tailed seamlessly, the one informing the other. I gained a deeper understanding of the foundations of science from the mechanistic classical Newtonian physics to the discoveries of the interconnected world on the subatomic level as revealed in Quantum physics . This understanding affirmed my instincts informing the visual language I was developing at this time.
There are some further threads to connect.
A book by Henry Miller, The Time of the Assassins, a study of the poet Rimbaud, was dynamite and I felt like a homecoming at the time.
Miller wrote, ''In Rimbaud, I see myself as in a mirror''
Here was another wanderer, a man both in the world and outside it, another spirit in revolt who was caught in a destiny difficult to define and surmount.
I also discovered a film by Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1956 documentary called Le Mystère Picasso in which he begins with this:
"One would die to know what was on Rimbaud's mind when he wrote 'The Drunken Boat,' or on Mozart's when he composed his symphony, 'Jupiter.' We'd love to know that secret process guiding the creator through this perilous adventure''.
Whereas both Poetry and Music the internal workings of the creator are hidden and you are left to wonder how they came to be, in Painting the audience can witness the physical and temporal evolution of a work directly. This is what I found in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1956 documentary Le Mystère Picasso and it was illuminating. The works Metamorphosis 1 and 2 had something of le Mystere echoing through about them.
Here is a link to a short clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFTtYOJDTJs
Also at this time i was drawn to the artist Karel Apel and his playful child like imagery and also William De Kooning's charcoal drawings made with his eyes closed had a strong impression with this becoming a catalyst for the Blind Man series.
In 2004, a retrospective exhibition at the Serpentine in London of the works of Cy Twombly landed immediately on walking into the gallery space. I felt transposed to another world, the sheer scale of these canvases such as Naples ( 1988 ) and untitled (Rome) (1961) vibrating with a mysterious and alluring presence.
Spain was the natural destination after London and following the scent of the spanish painters Picasso, Miro, and Tapies. A book on Antonio Tapies (Tapies in perspective) was a close companion at this time and the various essays by himself and others on his work. Some of the Andalucia water colours incorporated a braud and warmly dispersed underlayer like the single golden, preservative substance Tapies used in his works Ambrosia (1989) and Celebració de la mel (In Praise of Honey, 1989).
2020-2024 and the rollout of the COVID Event!
I named this theme Visceral the Powers because in these works there was a deep grief, disgust, rage and an almost violent discharging of energies bodied forth and running through them. During this time I often referred to the Symbol Sourcebook: International Graphic Symbols by Henry Dreyfuss, integrating some of these symbols into the works much like Jean Michel Basquiat had done in the late 1980s.
To finish here is a short film made in collaboration with friend and film maker Jose Mateo.
Daniel
August 2026
.........................................................................
Education
1996-1998 - North Devon College – Art and Design
2000 – 2004 - Roehampton University – Art and Philosophy
Exhibitions
2006 - Casa Cultura, Estepona, Spain
2012 - Plough Arts Centre, Torrington, North Devon