I have always been drawn to creative pursuits; I am happy making and doing!  I have never had any formal training in art & picked up inspiration from many places, some of the old Dutch masters or classical animal artists, and my dad.  Dad is an accomplished artist and helps and inspires me more than he knows.  Anything creative has always been outside of my day job which began as a Grenadier Guardsman in the British Army, where I would draw during quiet evenings.

I later went on to become a Police Officer in the Norfolk Constabulary, based in King’s Lynn, during this time I started making small leather goods to fill evenings and weekends, while I loved doing it, I was still missing creating art.
The itch to create my own art again didn’t go away, as many other creative hobbies had done so.  This time it was here to stay!

Once I started, I couldn’t stop, I began using coloured pencils but have settled on Pastels and Acrylic paint for now.  I still have far more ideas than time and am not keen on being pigeonholed into one genre, I’ll paint almost anything if I feel like it.  All of my subjects tend to revolve around nature as that’s where I find peace and enjoyment.  Painting a landscape, animal or person is my way of meditation I suppose.  It is one of the few times when my brain is calm and my thoughts ordered, I can lose hours drifting from one thought to another while still holding concentration on whatever I am painting.  Where much of our world is information overload, I control that little space in front of me.  I make mistakes, some I can rectify, but rarely they’ll end up in the bin.  The worst that can happen is to start again, which I have told myself is no drama as I enjoyed getting there, even if it didn’t work out as planned.  I am a planner by nature and rarely begin with a truly blank mind.  I plan each piece, but ultimately, I don’t know how it’ll end up.  I drift through each stage until at some point I say to myself ‘Now stop, that’s enough’. 

When people pay for a piece of my art, that’s really icing.  I’m glad it’s appreciated.
I paint standing up against a homemade easel in a spare bedroom that I have converted into a studio.  It suits me fine.

Sometimes I paint in silence, other times it’ll be House music played quite loud.  It’s my happy place either way!