Craz Creations

Mixed media on canvas 2011

30 x 100cm approx

This piece was totally spontaneous in it’s creation, once again built up in many layers which increase in complexity. I started off painting a loose sea, with watery waves in ink, which I then covered with a layer of shells, concentrating on their patterns. I then plunged deep beneath the surface down to the sea bed, and with the aid of my ever trusty Ernst Haeckel book, I overlaid some of his beautiful microscopic studies of deep sea organisms, and also made up some of my own. It is richly embellished and I think very beautiful. It has an astrological feel to it, which after deep thought I realise makes total sense, but I could not explain that! It’s very deep, like the sea. It is an odd sized canvas, which has made photographic reproduction impossible for me, but thanks to Rikard Osterlund I now have this fabulous quality image.

£400

Detail of “Trip Of A Lifetime’ photographed by Rikard Osterlund

Ink on canvas 2011

This is the opposite of a tree of life;  abundant in colour and flowers and life. The dead tree, devoid of leaves and life, yet so strikingly beautiful to me

£200

Mixed media on canvas

100×100cm approx

The skulls represent a clock (look closely at the number of teeth!) Our time on earth is quite short in comparison to the eternity of death

Mixed media on canvas 2011

100×150ccm approx

I am so impressed at the photography skills of Rikard Osterlund, who kindly took these photographs of my work from Muertos Elegante! Because of its size it is very captivating I think, and there is much to see here! My intention was to paint a shrine for myself, with all the things I love included in it. I only got as far as skeletons, butterflies, dogs, ships, giraffes, flowers, crows, seahorses and architecture…of course I love many people and things and obviously too much to fit into one shrine. Like I have too many belongings to fit into one house! This took months on and off, and is richly embellished. It isn’t really finished, and I think I will probably go back to it at some point. However it is very pleasing as it is, and I’m really quite proud of it. Hence its price, the princely sum of

£1000

Mixed media on canvas 2011

80×80cm approx

This experimental piece reminded me of Google Earth when you zoom in and the image is pixellated until it focuses. I don’t actually remember what my aim was when I started out, but on reflection think I was influenced by a print that I got from Abigail Ziering-Dalmodo where she has painted houses running flat along the edges of the earth. I put a fence and telegraph poles around the edge and the gravestones overlapping in the spiral, which represents how life is entwined with death.

Prints can be made available

£295

Acrylic On Canvas 2011

75×100cm approx

I painted this over a canvas that Gemma found in the street that had a reflexology chart painted on it and some heavily built up areas. I set to it one evening at the workshop whilst Jamie & Pete were bantering. The lively and random atmosphere contributed to the gung-ho mark marking, and the humour helped create the bizarre creatures. Now Elementree Studios is no more but this will always remind me.

Mixed Media On Canvas 2011

100 x 30cm approx.

This represents the faithfulness of the loyal canine, and the integration of man with  animals and nature.

£250

Mixed Media 2011

I created this piece after visiting the awe inspiring city of Granada…I built this up with many layers and different materials, to attempt to emulate the crumbling walls, the old upwinding streets, the many doors and windows and the beauty of the culture I feel so drawn to…

Mixed Media on canvas 2011

Depicting a flamboyant character in ’showbiz’, this richly decorated piece has a delicate surface. I’m not sure it will last forever but then who does?!

£200

Only two weeks to go now…eek! I have been holed up in the workshop for the past few weeks slaving over hot skeletons! If I can get all the things done that I would like to, this will be an awesome show…even if I do say so myself. As the exhibition races towards me I am suddenly “getting it”…like what I am actually trying to achieve here. And that I am blatantly involved in a lot of thought about life, death and the hope that one day I could be reunited with my lost loved souls. It has been 18 years since my friend Mark left and never returned, and I believe this had a massive bearing on how my life panned out. It will be the anniversary of him leaving on the 4th November, which is when I shall be holding the private view. I feel the need to produce a piece in his memory and can’t believe I never have before now.