Statement

‘Painting’ at its purest level (as opposed to ‘illustration’) is the poetic organisation of colour harmony and composition. The result is an aesthetic, an experience for our senses. The representational element is really quite unimportant though it is bound to effect our final reaction.
I am only interested in the discipline of painting through exploration of landscape and still life, I find I  need a visual input, though creating a ‘picture’ is not my primary intention.
I ask you to try to look at my paintings beyond their subject matter. It is a language of paint texture, brush marks and colour, similar to music, it is an international language.
Nevertheless I still feel accurate observation of the subject matter to be important as my source material, I strive not to distort drawing or colour, both of which are adequately rich and unusual in nature. 
I am not trying to tell a narrative, shock, make any socio-political commentary or any other contemporary irrelevance that will disturb the purity of the language of painting.’

Life

My schooling was at St George’s, Harpenden, England. There I was fortunate to have had a great art teacher who set me on my way, he taught me to start exploring the intellectual elements in painting.

I went to art schools at St Albans  and Liverpool, where I obtained my degree. At Foundation course I had two inspirational tutors, one taught me to question, the other the passion. At my degree course my tutor thought I had no talent and kept telling me so – this was a challenge and taught me the anger needed to survive.

Four years at art school seemed enough, I was anxious to get out and paint in the real world away from the apathy of art students, so I rejected the idea of a post-graduate course. Instead I worked on a series of large landscapes in London for two years.

I returned to St Albans Art School to teach life drawing for three years.

In 1979 I moved to Italy to paint full time, working on landscapes and trying to learn about light and colour.

In 1997 I moved to Northern Spain to work from a different landscape. I have also developed still life further, this I have always considered an intense & controllable discipline.

I only started showing my work in galleries in 1996, prior to that I felt I wasn’t ready.

I now work in two studios, one in Kent, England and the other in Catalonia, Spain.