View my work here www.rcrux.com
or here
I specialise in calligraphic lettering-(hand written or digitally enhanced)
and have been working as an artist / illustrator for about 25 years. I earn a crust through commercial artwork for the publishing industries - greeting cards, book jackets etc. However I'm always interested in unusual projects, one offs,etc and will accept commissioned work.

I have an experimental approach to hand lettering which always starts with traditional skills but then may be combined with drawing, digital imaging or paper sculpture. I don’t have a fixed process as I believe the text should determine the solution to the creative problem.

Iam also a keen photographer.

Motivations / Influences

From my early teens I have been profoundly moved by music and its power to uplift and open the doors of perception into the dazzling beauty of the world. Music has no boundaries of language and has the ability to physically affect us all, whatever race or creed, on a direct level without being subject to the filtering of the intellect. Unfortunately my musical abilities do not allow me to express myself in this way and therefore I make an attempt to achieve this communication through my calligraphy and artwork. I doubt whether it is possible, but I will continue to try to produce a piece of visual art that will affect others in the way that some music affects me. There are many comparisons to be found between music and calligraphy. Rhythm, counterpoint and the dynamics of light and shade are all important aspects in the production of a successful piece of calligraphy and I believe this is as close as I will ever get to composing a piece of music. I grew up with the progressive rock music of King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator and Genesis, with the works of M.C.Escher, Arthur Rackham and the Pre-raphaelites and the novels and short stories of Hermann Hesse. I must also mention the stunning visionary films of Andrei Tarkovsky -’Stalker’, ‘Nostalgia’, ‘Solaris’ and ‘The Mirror’. These are all still dear to me and I have more recently found fertile grounds for my inspiration and imagination in the spacious soundscapes of Scandinavian jazz as well as in the Arabic rhythms of Anouar Brahem and Dhafer Youssef. After studying the rigours of traditional lettering, I have felt a need to explore areas of freedom, fluidity and improvisation (perhaps a reflection of my interest in new jazz) in my more recent work whilst retaining the importance of attention to detail and the beauty of natural curves.
It is not a fashionable stance now in a world of ‘challenging’ art to follow Keats’ assertion that ‘Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty’, but my personal belief is that the role of the artist is to counterbalance the destruction and horrors of the world by attempting to create beauty and demonstrating love through whatever medium, and not to contribute to the tide of dischord that threatens to swamp us all from time to time.
Music plays all day long in my studio. I hope that you may hear its echoes in my work.

I'm interested in all aspects of art, literature, live and recorded music - particularly scandinavian jazz/electronica, animation, film, fell walking, poetry