About

I see myself as an explorer. Obviously not in the heroic, man-against-the-odds sort of way, but in everyday looking, really looking, at what’s around you sort of way.

Meet Tor

Drawing sharpens looking. Every aspect of the landscape in front of you must be seen and must be considered. The spread of the boughs of a tree, or the profile of the riverbank, or whatever, must be repeated by your hand and made tangible. Drawing transforms seeing (which is all in the mind, after all) into a physical experience. Drawing is always surprising, grass, clouds, water, light, darkness etc are stranger and way more exciting than at first glance. Drawing is a super power we all have, we don’t have to be ‘good’ at it to use it to help us see further. Ultimately it inspires awe in your subject matter, be it an apple core or the moon, and that feeling makes me want to write about it.

I like to work intensely on a particular subject. Spending years moving around a place, be it one field or a 50 mile long footpath - whatever. Looking and drawing, looking and drawing, looking and drawing over and over again. Saturating myself in the local colours, the repeating shapes, the flora and fauna, the weather, the moon, sounds and smells of the landscape. Each drawing contains a germ of truth. Each drawing is connected to all the others. My intention is to show them all together, immersing the viewer in the landscape that I’ve spent so long looking at, moving around in and thinking about.

Hampered only by chalk pastels, a board and some paper, I can be out all day, or night, and make many drawings. Walking-looking-drawing-writing is my way of trying tounderstand the landscape I’m in.

CV/Exhibitions:

  • Norwich School of Art - Various group shows

  • June 2011 Group Eight. Group show 18|21 Gallery, Norwich, Norfolk

  • Nov 2013 Group Eight from the edge. Group show, Asia House, New Cavendish St, London

  • Sept 2014 New Work. Solo show, Wiveton Hall Café

  • Nov 2015 Specially invited by Emma Bridgewater to The Discerning Eye Exhibition. East Anglian Regional Prize winner.

  • March 2016 Pedlars Way a walk with chalk. Solo show and publication of book, Abbott & Holder, London WC1A 1LH

  • August 2016 PLACE. Three man show with Kate Giles and Justin Partyka at Black Barn, Cockley Cley

  • Dec 2016 Eight by Eight. Group show, Fairhurst Gallery, Norwich

  • April 2017 group show, Burnham Overy Staithe Summer 2017 South Downs drawings on show at Glyndebourne

  • Summer 2018 South Downs drawings on show at Glyndebourne

  • July - Dec 2019 River of Norfolk. Solo show and publication of book at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery

  • Feb 2020 Rivers of Norfolk Solo show, Abbott & Holder, London, WC1A 1LH

  • Autumn 2020 Cover artwork for Slightly Foxed Magazine

  • Oct 2022 A Year in Drawings. Solo show with Davina Barber, Glandford, Norfolk

  • Autumn 2023 Cumberland Drawings. Solo show, Archive Gallery, Heaton Cooper Studio, Cumbria

  • June 2024 FLOW a liquid conversation. Three man show with Rachael Long and Liz McGowan in Wymondham, Norfolk

  • September 2024 Sugar Beet Moon. Solo show and publication of book at Abbott & Holder, London, WC1A 1LH

  • October 2024 Sugar Beet Moon shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards non-fiction section

Books

I’ve written three books; Peddars Way: A walk with chalk, Rivers of Norfolk, and my latest Sugar Beet Moon. All accompanied exhibitions of the drawings.

Banner image photo credit: Harry Cory Wright