2018 has been my most financially successful year as an artist, primarily due to my England's Dark Dreaming book (fewer than 75 copies left at time of writing!). However when I say my most financially successful year as an artist please don't even think that I’m anywhere near close to being…
No one seems to dream of England’s future any more, just its imagined past. When the post-modernists proclaimed (again) “the end of history” what they should have been announcing, in England at least, was the end of the future. The Conservatives have consistently sold a dream of the…
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As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know, the book of my England’s Dark Dreaming series of drawings is now available to pre-order. It’s due to be published in early/mid August priced £14.99, but pre-orders are available now at the discounted price of £12.99 (both prices exclude…
Yesterday I posed a question on Twitter as a short thread that I’ll reformat here for easy reading: I’m trying to put together a vague explanation for the increased use—by artists (such as myself), writers, musicians, filmmakers, etc—of a particular view of Britain that is simultaneously…
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Note: An extended version of this blog post is available in my book of artwork England’s Dark Dreaming, available to order from our online shop. On some days, when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, it is said that you can glimpse the mythical land of Deep England, particularly if…
In which I make some initial notes looking into the Gothic mode in my England’s Dark Dreaming series of drawings. About the word “Gothic” I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s clad in black (and the occasional paisley shirt) and listening to the Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, Bauhaus,…
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Prompted by some several discussions on Twitter (particularly one thread from author Adrian Bott) prompted by yet another article about Folk Horror films I wanted to set out some thoughts about Folk Horror. From the beginning I think it’s worth emphasising the fact that I don’t see myself…
I’ve now finished the first 5 of my England’s Dark Dreaming series of drawings. I wish I could show you them at their full size—one metre high—rather than the relatively small digital photographs of them, because the physical scale of a piece of artwork affects your reaction to it. Having…
I'm increasingly convinced that the country is temporally fractured, and we should be expecting a visit from Sapphire & Steel any time now. Everything seems to operate on skewed oneiric logic. Everyone is reduced to ill-disguised cyphers, woodenly acting roles and reciting lines. The series of…
A few days ago on Twitter I was thinking out loud about the film The Witch, which I watched on Saturday evening, specifically about its relationship to the theme of Folk Horror which is getting some interesting attention recently. Folk Horror seems to be a nebulous concept to define, even though…