to find me in the park with a sketch book and pencil. At the age of thirteen I gained a scholarship to Portland House School of art and won several accolades and prizes during my time there.

I went on to study at Burslem College of art. On leaving the college I found the jobs with an artistic requirement were few and far between so between 1964 and 1979 I pursued a career in sales and marketing whilst furthering my artistic ambitions by taking occasional commissions.

My passion for painting remained with me and in the early 80's I took the plunge and established myself full-time as a commission artist and illustrator and have more than 600 commissions to my name throughout Britain and Europe. I travelled extensively throughout Europe from 1986 to 1989, living with friends I made or in the back of my van. I earned enough money to survive selling drawings and paintings and during this period I had one-man exhibitions in a number of countries. In recent years I have visited many other parts of the world.

Since 1989 I have moved away from commissions as a main source of income to teaching which I find very rewarding. I have worked for Hereford College of Art and in a number of primary schools advancing the pupils and teachers drawing skills. I was also a guest tutor at Art in Action for several years. In 1993 I established my own large studio to give me space to put on private classes and ran drawing and painting courses attracting students from throughout the UK and overseas. I am particularly proud of the courses I run in basic and developing drawing skills, which I passionately believe in.

The success of my teaching studio benefited me as an artist in several ways. I have learnt an enormous amount from my students. Even now after more than 15 years I am still learning from them because teaching makes one think about what one is doing and how one is doing it. The teaching also gave me a certain amount of financial security which has enabled me to explore painting for its own sake and be experimental. The final piece of the jigsaw was put in place when I opened my own gallery at the studio. This enabled me to present my work in a perfect space and as a result I began to sell well. A further development was the increasing interest by other galleries around the country in showing my work. I have now sold my studio and gallery in Herefordshire and moved to Gloucestershire where I now feel I have found just where I want to be geographically and artistically and so I am very focused.