Latest news...
12.04.13 – CREATIVE BOOM FEATURE
This week I wrote an article for the creative design blog, "Creative Boom" about my favourite things – a selection of items of particular inspiration and importance to my work. You can read it HERE!
01.04.13 – NEW ARTWORK
No, it's not an April fool! I really have been working on a new painting, and it's now online. Frondēscentia is another alien landscape piece, that sits comfortably in my "Discovery" series of works.
FUTURE WORLDS RELEASE ROUND-UP
Here is a list of the main online retailers where you can download my album Future Worlds.
25.03.13
My good friend Dave Yeaman has written a short story based on each of the songs on Future Worlds. Exclusive to this site, you can read it HERE.
18.03.13 – FUTURE WORLDS IS EVERYWHERE!
My latest album, Future Worlds is now available as an mp3 album on iTunes and the following Amazon sites: UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and US. Have you got your copy yet?
Just to clarify, the version of the album on the above sites comprises just the 12 album tracks. The version on my Bandcamp page comes with 2 bonus tracks and a PDF booklet.
03.03.13 – FUTURE WORLDS: TRACK BY TRACK
I have written a blog for the Institute for Interstellar Studies™, breaking Future Worlds down track by track, explaining my original ideas and inspiration behind each one. It can be read HERE.
23.02.13 – FUTURE WORLDS IS OUT!
I'm proud to annouce the release of my new album of electro-symphonic music, Future Worlds. The album is currently available as download only from my Bandcamp page, but hopefully in the near future, it will have a wider release and be available on places such as Amazon and iTunes.
The full album download comes with two bonus tracks and an 8-page booklet in PDF format, featuring my own artwork as well as a specially written introduction and accopmanying artwork by space artist David A. Hardy.
As their honorary musician, I'm also promoting the Institute for Interstellar Studies™ via Future Worlds, and 10% of any album sales will go towards this exciting new initiative, which holds so much great potential, I can't even begin to tell you! Anybody with an interest in spacecraft and interstellar flight should definitely check it out (www.i4is.org).
Future Worlds has also been added to the music page.
03.02.13 – FUTURE WORLDS
My latest painting, The World Outside, features as the cover artwork to my latest album of instrumental music, Future Worlds. I'm currently mixing the tracks and making various final tweaks – all being well, it will hit the virtual shelves later this month!
17.01.13 – NEW YEAR, NEW WORK...
Firstly, belated New Year wishes and a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit my site or listen to my music over the last year – and I hope you enjoyed it, because there's more of both to come!
New art... I'm currently putting the finishing touches to my first new painting for a while, which has the working title of The World Outside. I'll be adding it to the gallery very soon!
New album... For the last few months, I have been working on Future Worlds, a new album of orchestral-electronic music, which takes the listener on a journey through various future scenarios. The themes on the album look back at a home planet ravaged by climate change and the demands of mankind, and looks forward to space travel and the colonisation of other planets. I am hoping to release this as a digital download via my Bandcamp page during February.
Finally, the Institute for Interstellar Studies is gradually gathering momentum, and I'm honoured to be a part of it – it's certainly going to be an exciting year for this project, starting off with an awareness raising month in February.
Stay tuned...
15.11.12 – NOVACON 42
Novacon – Britain's longest-running SF convention – returned to its adopted home of Nottingham from 9-11th November, and I went along both as an exhibiting artist and first-time attendee.
Having only previously experienced Doctor Who conventions of over-obsessed fandom and endless Tom Baker scarves, Novacon fell at the other end of the spectrum, focusing mostly on literature, art and science – and not a costume in sight! Having grown out of the Birmingham SF Group, the majority of people already knew each other, at what seemed to be an annual get together, so a newbie like myself felt a little like I was crashing somebody else's party – but that would soon change!
It was a pleasure to meet up once again with renowned space artist, David A. Hardy for the event, and an honour to exhibit my artwork alongside his. Although apparently smaller than previous years (which could only work to our advantages), the art show was brilliantly organised thanks to Serena and her team, and well received. Even though the art room was confined to the level below the main festivities, it had plenty of visitors over the weekend.
I soon learnt that Black Sheep was the traditional drink of choice by the convention-goers. However an unprecedented catastrophe ensued on the Friday evening, when the unthinkable happened – the Black Sheep wasn't on! Fortunately equilibrium was restored later in the evening when the coveted ale finally started flowing. The rest of the Friday evening was spent celebrating the launch of two new books by Guest of Honour, author Jaine Fenn.
The Saturday morning was a special moment for me, as we had the premier of Dave Hardy's new English edit of 1957 Russian film, Road to the Stars, which features an original soundtrack by myself. The film went down extremely well, with my music pleasurably booming out of the PA for the whole 45 minutes. After an unexpected round of applause for my contribution (Thanks, Dave!), folk flocked to the art room to purchase the DVDs, which sold like hot cakes. My only slight regret was that I hadn't taken any copies of the soundtrack on CD (although it is available to purchase as a download).
During the Saturday afternoon, I spent a good hour spoilt for choice in the dealer's room. Books galore; old and new. Lovely vintage covers, out of print copies, you name it. And it was in here that I met new booksellers Durdles Books – who shared my passion for the printed book, and who also joined the small group of us escaping out for a meal in the city centre later that evening, which was rather good. I made to sure to stop by the Durdles stall the next day where I purchased Flowers for Algernon, a book I've been intending to read for some time.
I also came away with a new list of authors and titles to check out, as well as a few other books including a copy of Dave Hardy's own original novel (just out!), Aurora.
Sunday afternoon saw the obligatory art auction, hosted by Novacon legends Rog Peyton and Chris Morgan. A nice surprise came for me when not one, but three – three! – pieces of my own work went under the hammer. Guest of Honour, Jaine Fenn was the winning bidder on the one and only print of my Dalek painting.
Spending a weekend in a hotel overrun by likeminded SF fans was an absolute pleasure, and by the time of the closing ceremony on the Sunday afternoon, I'd talked myself dry. But not without good cause, having met great new people and friends along the way.
I'm already looking forward to the next one. See you there!
24.10.2012 – MUSIC UPDATE
The music page has had a long overdue update. The orchestral soundtrack I composed for David A.Hardy's new DVD of visionary Russian film, Road to the Stars, is now available, along with another new work, Chrysalis and a new version of my 2007 album, Into the Light. Head over to my Bandcamp page to find out more.
I will be producing more music for the Institute of Interstellar Studies in the coming months.
NOVACON
Only a couple of weeks to go until this year's Novacon event in Nottingham. I will be exhibiting in the art display, so do come and say hello!
16.09.2012
THE INSTITUTE FOR INTERSTELLAR STUDIES
I'm proud to announce that I've accepted the post of first Honorary Interstellar Musician for a new and exciting project, The Institute for Interstellar Studies. I will be producing exclusive new music as part of this role, and no doubt new artwork to go with it. Watch this space for details. In the meantime, do check out the website: www.I4IS.org
NEW MUSIC
I have recently completed an orchestral style soundtrack for a project with space artist David A. Hardy. More details soon!
NOVACON
I will be attending this year's Novacon event in Nottingham, and exhibiting at their art exhibition. I'm currently in the process of selecting various works.
31.08.2012
"INFERNO" NOW AVAILABLE
My new album of instrumental music Inferno, is now available to buy as a digital download for just £7. The full, 12-track download comes with a PDF booklet containing exclusive artwork. For more info, please see: http://thelightdreams.bandcamp.com/
31.07.2012
MUSIC PAGE UPDATE
I spent most of the last few months working on a new electronic music album, Inferno. I'm pleased to say it is finished, and samples are now up for streaming on the newly-updated music page. I've also added a link to the music page in the main menu to the left.
Artwork for the cover of Inferno has also been added to the gallery.
21.07.2012
EMERGE GALLERY INTERVIEW
Emerge Gallery website currently feature an in-depth interview with me, talking about my background, work and inspiration, which can be seen here.
I also recently added a new space painting to the gallery.
07.05.12
NEW ARTWORK
Two new pieces of artwork have been added to the Futures section of the gallery. Inferno is an apocalyptic science fiction scene, and Cerulean Skies is a new painting with a bit of a retro futuristic feel.
22.04.12
IMPROVEMENTS
The cartoon illustration page has finally been updated with bigger images, and broken links to the home page have been fixed.
15.04.12
MUSIC!
Between 2006-09, I produced my own music under the 'Light Dreams' moniker. I have finally got round to creating a page dedicated to this project (which I also intend to resume). This new page contains tracklistings for each album as well as the artwork and links to stream the songs on Soundcloud and Last.fm
09.04.2012
GALLERY UPDATE
I spent the Easter weekend producing a new piece of artwork based on a comic book I made some 17 years ago! Click here to find out more...
25.03.2012
GALLERY UPDATE
Two new pieces have been added to the gallery – Togetherness (which currently resides in an "other" category) and Colony (an addition to the Discovery series).
24.03.2012
NEW RANGE OF SIGNED PRINTS
The shop page has been re-designed a little, and now includes a limited edition range of signed A4 laser prints.
15.02.12
POSTCARD PRINTS
The pack of four limited edition postcard prints are now available for £3.99 - in the shop
01.02.12
ARCHIVE GALLERY ADDED
I have added a new archive gallery of my submissions for the Times Online's 2008 competition to design a new cover for J.G. Ballard's Crash.
02.01.12
ANARCHY TIME YARNS E-BOOK
My painting Hope is featured in the new science-fiction eBook anthology, Anarchy Time Yarns, edited by Erin Lale. It's available on Amazon.
29.12.11
HIBERNUS IIII
Belated seasonal greetings! And a big thank you to everybody who has visited my site this year (including the five people who came on Christmas day!). The fourth piece in the Hibernus series is now online...
29.11.11
HIBERNUS SERIES
The first three paintings of my new Hibernus series are now online...
11.11.11
ARTWEB INTERVIEW
An interview I recently gave on the Artweb site is now online - click here to read.
06.11.11
SITE UPDATES
Site update – the main gallery page has now been categorised by theme, and also includes two previously unseen paintings, Dead London and Bon Voyage. I also have started a new series of winter landscape pieces entitled Hibernus.
03.10.11
POSTCARD PRINTS NOW AVAILABLE
A limited edition set of postcard prints featuring Awakening, Prophecy, Big Dog and Hope are now available to buy via the new shop page.
BRAVE NEW WORLDS EXHIBITION
Brave New Worlds - Utopias/Dystopias is running until 5th November 2011 at the Riverside Gallery in Richmond-Upon-Thames. It features the work of 25 artists and includes my painting, Awakening. See the Richmond website for more details.
FACEBOOK AND TWITTER PAGES
I now have an artist page on Facebook and you can also follow me on Twitter - come and join in!
