Neil was born in England in 1972, attended art school in the late 80’s and then went on to study fine Art at Coventry University. In 1997 he moved to Melbourne from the UK and immersed himself into the Melbourne art scene. Neil’s practice includes Printmaking, Sculpture and Oil painting. He now resides in the small town of Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. 

“I spend a lot of time dwelling on the history of my immediate area. I’ve always been a keen observer, exploring and scanning the landscape for clues leading to previous existing built forms, and through a research-intensive practice, am piecing together the architectonic structure of the landscape with these forms, recreating the past and in doing so providing historical reference for the future. These works are for me a romantic vision of an idealised form of rural existence. 

When I’m painting these built forms in the landscape I like to think about the structure and how it would have been put together, the way I paint is informed by the builder’s methods. I’ll sketch the sub-structure before constructing the outer skin.”