As a certain man once told us, by our fruits we are known; my creations are my credentials – a browse through them aught to reassure you of these.
Welcome to my web pages, wherein you will find neither piles of bricks nor messy beds - only a selection of artworks from a lifetime of patient, contemplative practice and over fifty years professional experience.
I was born 1939 in North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne, and grew up in the days when Tyneside was still one of the major centres of the shipbuilding and fishing industries. Virtually self-taught in painting, I cannot remember which came first - walking, or wielding a pencil and brush, and in my boyhood, spent much of my free time sketching by the sea or Shields' bustling fish quay.
The first ever in my home town to be awarded a scholarship, I broke the mould of generations and received training in lettering, layout and commercial design at the South Shields School of Art and at Sunderland College of Art, then worked successfully for a number of years as a visualiser and illustrator in the advertising scene on Tyneside, and as Art Tutor with the Adult Education Authority in my home town, before turning my attention to painting full time professionally.
Working mainly in oils and covering a wide range of subjects, I have gained a reputation as one of Britain’s foremost figure artists, finding in them the most demanding though rewarding of subjects. Painting in a manner not unlike that of the impressionists, and using glazes and scumbles, I draw directly with the brush, never veering far from the natural colours and forms I find inspiring.
In search of new pastures and scenes to capture the imagination, with my wife Shirley I have lived and exhibited in various areas of England, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Republic, before finally retiring to Nottinghamshire. Naturally my work is spread around the Isles, and much has found its way into overseas collections.
