Walking is, for me, both an event or performance in itself, a primary means of investigation and source of creative inspiration.  It can be an informal means to bring people together, to share experience and knowledge and connect with the more-than-human realm we are interdependent with.

My work includes:

• independent self-initiated projects for public events, research, and exhibitions;
• collaborative socially-engaged projects with other artists, organisations and communities;
• private commissions;
• curating.

I am open to collaboration, working in communities and crossing boundaries between disciplines and cultures.  I aim to be inclusive and a catalyst for change.

My work responds to walking, depicting experiences of everyday details, the wider landscape and its social and environmental history.  I raise issues concerning land ownership and use of public/private space, and investigate relations between control and liberty, geometric order and chaos, the organic and human-made.  Building up work in layers, I regularly return to themes of rhythm, transition and connections.

Hey! Earthlings!

Hey! Earthlings! invited people who have moved across borders or with connections overseas to work with artists offering welcome, to share and celebrate their cultures, connect with natural and historic heritage and build stronger ties to land and community in Shropshire.

The Landing Project

The Landing Project is a creative exploration of rural labour, the evolution of farming practices and future relationships between people and land

In the Field and on the Island

In this artist residency I document the changes in the varied landscapes of Doctor’s Field and Poplar Island, two flood meadows in Shrewsbury, over a year. Work involves walking, studying, and creating artworks from foraged materials and field recordings, charting subtle seasonal and environmental shifts, and connecting with local history.

The Roaming Flags of Bumble Hole

Working with artist Andy Howlett, and singer/songwriter Bethany Kay Hopkins, we led a project to make a series of flags celebrating the nature and waterways of Bumble Hole Nature Reserve in Dudley with the local community and volunteers. 

Avon Meadows – Beauty and Utility

I was one of four artists commissioned by Meadow Arts on this project, working at Avon Meadows, Pershore with the Floodplain Meadows Partnership

Mosses and Marshes

The Mosses and Marshes project brings together artists, land managers and environmental specialists in the UK and Australia questioning how we think about and value natural environments through works centred on the raised peat bogs of Fenn’s Bettisfield and Whixall Mosses NNR on the border between England and Wales and the iconic Macquarie Marshes in New South Wales, Australia.

Within Walking Distance

Kim Goldsmith and I began a collaboration in early 2019 via the Arts Territory Exchange…

Space&Nausea: Walking Meets Production

A remote collaboration exploring related walking practices with Gareth Jones via the Arts Territory Exchange programme

Bear Witness: The Lie of the Land

Bear Witness – The Lie of the Land is a short 20 min film produced by artists Jill Impey and myself for Cinderloo 1821 during 2019. The film was funded by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Cinderloo 1821

I co-founded the Cinderloo 1821 community group to raise awareness of the Cinderloo Uprising through a series of socially-engaged art activities, community events and education programme.

Rea Brook Valley

A series of paintings and other works responding to the landscape in the Rea Brook Valley in Shrewsbury. The river flows through a ribbon of woodland weaving directly into the town to join the River Severn. New developments of housing and retail parks now encroach and irreversibly alter the character of the landscape.

Inhabited

This series of drawings and paintings was inspired by walks in Shropshire and surrounding areas, in which I made observations of cabins, caravans and sheds of various kinds.

In Parallel

This series of paintings and book were inspired by a regular hour long walk to and from the Shrewsbury business park and surrounding edgelands.

Quotidian

A series of photographs of fragments of the Shrewsbury Market Hall building fabric showing its wear and tear, shown as part of the Voyage of Enterprise exhibition celebrating the building’s 50th Anniversary

In Parallel and Entwined

During 2017, I continued research inspired by my walks to and around the Shrewsbury Business…

City Connections

A series of images focusing on the relationships, sometimes ambiguous, transient or tenuous, between city…

Phantom Cities

These constructed relief paintings and photographs contrast the geometric city architecture of steel and glass…

Land in Hand

Description The Visual Art Network commissioned Mairi Turner and Andrew Howe in July 2011 to…

Inner Space

In the Inner Space series I wanted to portray the layering and complexity in the…

Imperfectly Natural

An exploration of rhythm, transition and connections. Natural cycles and the birth of my baby daughter,…