The Architecture Of Connection

Solo Exhibition - Saul Hay Gallery

Sat 29th Nov - Sun 21st Dec 2025
Preview Saturday 29th Nov 2pm to 6pm

Saul Hay Gallery Railway Cottage Off Castle Street Castlefield Manchester M3 4LZ

I’ll be in the gallery painting from Tuesday 16th Dec til the exhibition closes on Sunday 21st Dec.

10 years ago, on the 15th Dec 2015, after three months in ICU my dad peacefully passed away. For the three months he was in hospital I travelled back and forth every week from Manchester to Surrey to be with him and my family. I became so familiar with the route, each stretch of road, junction and bridge becoming a marker and landmark in my journey. The time spent in the car became a time for reflection, processing and remembering. Childhood memories flooded back and thoughts drifted to nostalgic moments passed.

In 2018 I started painting my motorway bridges, the landmarks that served me so well became the main focus of each painting, punctuating my route, marking the passing of time and telling me where I was up to on my journey three years previously.

Bridges are connectors, joining land and people. What developed over the course of the 7 years creating the work and has become a key role that has kept me painting them, is connection. The connection people make to the work, often by placing themselves in the paintings and seeing their own memories and journeys reflected back at them. Then the connection to me by them sharing their stories of love and losses with me, all marked by journeys made, significant landmarks and the passing of time.

This exhibition explores the connections we make to each other as well as to the landscape outside of the car window, not only what’s in front, but when we look left and right. This is portrayed by a series of ‘Edge Land’ paintings capturing the topography that often goes unnoticed as our eyes are locked straight ahead.

The exhibition invites an intimacy with the viewer through the scale of the works and alongside them, for the first time, are some of the personal emails and messages people have sent me, included with their permission.