About me

I've always had a love of nature and its

expression in art. Landscapes, portraits

and figures. Seeing the panorama of

scenery rendered on a flat surface with the

power to invoke the real thing, captured

me in a moment and I wanted to do that,

too. Give me an easel, pencil and brush.

Playing as a child I revered the fauna and

flora around my boyhood home in the

Weald of south-east England and I'd

spend hours in the surrounding woods and

fields developing an abiding engagement

with nature's glories.

Some of my paintings will strike a chord

with those of you, who-like me- retain

powerfully nostalgic memories of life in

rural England in the 1950's and 60s,

before the rough and tumble of today's

modern life hurried us along.

Oh, those mighty coal-burning steam

engines billowing steam in long white

clouds and me standing on a bridge as it

passed under enveloping me in a coal

furnace and oily-smelling brief mist. And

the smell of tar being laid on the road with

slow-moving steam rollers. Nothing evokes

these memories more than a whiff from the

past bringing back unhesitating memories.

I used to walk along quiet country lanes

festooned with wild flowers in the

hedgerows whose names I had yet to

learn and their hidden abundance of noisy

birds and animals. I remember stopping

with elbows on farmer's gate to soak up

the scenery of crops, trees, that concealed

village a half-mile away and how the

wildlife approached nearby if I kept still for

a while.

I began my career after 5 years of study at

Reigate College of Art, working in

television as a scenic designer and also

painting, and illustrating a wide range of

books and magazines.