I use media both traditional (ceramics) and non-traditional (watercolour). I complement manual techniques with modern mathematics (for example, complex numbers to represent planar geometry) and programming (Python).
I live in Leith, Scotland.
You can follow my latest updates and contact me on Instagram.
I wish to thank Adam Williamson and Richard Henry from the Art of Islamic Pattern studio for their patient teaching and encouragement in Marrakesh, Fes and London; Fadhila Al Dhahouri and Sandy Kurt from the Global Centre for Islamic Art, who organise an inspiring annual online Islamic Art Week; Ian Henderson at the Edinburgh Design School for getting me started with ceramics; and Paul Barchilon for his precious advice on making ceramic tiles.
I am lucky to be able to draw inspiration from a rich artistic tradition spanning 1,300 years, from the Maghreb and Al-Andalus to Persia and Moghal India. With the notable exception of calligraphy, past masters of the Islamic visual arts remain mostly anonymous to us and have unfortunately left very little documentation on the techniques and meaning of their art. A rare such surviving document, for geometric patterns, is the Topkapi Scroll, which the Getty has made freely available online. Thankfully, over the past fifty years, there has been a renewal of scholarship in this field, and one can now find a wealth of excellent books and online resources to guide their journey into Islamic art. The collection of Titus Burckhardt's 1970s lectures published in A Living Islamic City - Fez and Its Preservation is a great introduction to the principles of Islamic art as viewed by a Western scholar of both traditions. Jay Bonner's 2017 monumental Islamic Geometric Patterns is a gold mine of patterns and an authority on the polygonal technique of construction, nicely complemented by a chapter by Craig Kaplan on computer algorithms. The modern mathematical foundations of tilings and patterns were masterfully described in Branko Grünbaum and G. C. Shephard's eponymous 1987 book. And although I do not make use of his "soft geometry" approximate construction method, Jean-Marc Castéra's 1996 Arabesques - Art décoratif au Maroc is an invaluable resource for drawing Marinid patterns - and includes the best explanation I have found yet of the modular construction of muqarnas. Finally, Sheila S. Blair's 2006 Islamic Calligraphy has been recognised as a major contribution to understanding this paramount Islamic art, and is very readable. There are many more books I can recommend for more specialised subtopics, so feel free to get in touch if you're looking to build an Islamic art library.