A small man from the 16th century.

He’s called the Wanderer.

I found him in an old woodcut some years ago and, for reasons I’m not entirely sure I understand, he has kept turning up in my paintings ever since. I like the fact that he seems so out of place — a figure from another time wandering through an increasingly strange and turbulent world.

Perhaps I identify with him.

Making a mess

Over the summer I’ve been making eight new, larger Wanderer paintings for the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea.

I usually begin by making a mess — trying to create marks, colours and shapes I couldn't have planned. Then comes the slower business of looking. Finding the two colours that suddenly sing together. A shape that seems to dance with another. Slowly bringing some sort of order to the chaos.

Our world feels particularly uncertain at the moment. I don't want to make paintings about doom and gloom. Quite the opposite. I'm interested in the possibility of finding something beautiful amongst all the noise.

One week to go

I’m delighted to have been chosen as the Programme Artist for this autumn’s Affordable Art Fair Battersea. One of my Wanderer paintings is being used for the fair campaign, and I’ve also been working on something rather larger for the entrance.

A giant House of Cards.

Fifteen enormous painted playing cards, each eight feet high, balanced together in the lobby.

What could possibly go wrong?

7th OCTOBER 2026