During my early training I studied at school with a fine art tutor until I went to university.  His course covered pen and ink wash drawing, oils, print making with plates and screen, film and photograph, sculpture and ceramics.  From this broad base I decided that I would follow a career path into product design and architecture.  I studied for a BA (Hons) in Product Design and followed this with a Masters in Industrial Design.

This led to a career in industry which covered modular exhibition system design, specialist architectural elements and ultimately and more recently, the construction of mass transit terminals including underground stations, airports and railway stations.  So I have been drawing all of my working life, albeit adding the use of 3D CAD over the last twenty years. Despite this, I have had a pencil in my hand most days.  I have to say, designers who can still draw by hand are a dying breed!

After almost 40 years in industry the sparkle and excitement of large projects has faded somewhat and about 4 years ago while still working full time I decided to renew my original interest in painting and printmaking for pleasure and excitement.  During the last couple of years I have been rediscovering my love of paint and colour.  I work in both watercolour and oil on paper, board and canvas.

For me the watercolours are my summer passion as I spend most weekends sailing on the east coast of the UK.  A homemade brass watercolour palette, a few brushes and a half a dozen quarter sheets of paper are so much easier to use on the on the boat, to pack and handle.  What is more, they dry quickly and don’t smell.  The cabin of a sailing boat is a small space for wet oil panels which won’t dry for days!

In 2016 I decided that I would re-engage with my artistic side and started to produce sketches and drawings in pen and wash.  As I regained the feel for brushes and paint I became more confident and started to approach larger, more ambitious paintings.

In 2017 I was lucky enough to have time to study with Mary Benz Gilkerson, an artist based in the United States, who focuses on landscapes in oils using the palette knife.  I spent. a weekend painting en plein air with Haidee Jo Summers whose style is fresh and direct.  I was able to spend a week with Alvaro Castagnet whose watercolour paintings are full of life and flamboyance.  I hoped that studying with these artists would help me to free up my approach and develop a looser style.

In 2018 I intend to further develop my painting education by spending  time with the English watercolour painter Steve Hall.

As a painter I am impatient.  I like to paint "alla prima" spending no more than a couple of hours on a painting in either medium, watercolour or oil.  I don't like to revisit a painting to rework areas or to finish off as I feel that it is important to capture the spirit there and then. If I return to a painting the next day,  I have lost what interested me or caught my attention in the moment.