About
I began painting in my late thirties, after enrolling for an Open College of the Arts course at the Conservatoire in Blackheath. Prior to this I’d dabbled with graphic design and illustration, but it was at Blackheath that I took my first hesitant steps with brush and canvas.
The time I could devote to painting was limited by the demands of a full-time job, but this situation eased in 2004 when I began working part-time and started attending an oil-painting class at SCOLA in Sutton. I exhibited with some fellow-students in Surrey and South London under the group name of Conundrum .
In 2015 a chance encounter with Steve Alexander from the Wapping Group introduced me to the delights (!) of outdoor painting in all weathers, and I learned much about technique from outings with Steve and his fellow ‘plein-air’ painters.
For many years now I’ve attended Pirbright Art Club, run with considerable verve by Maggie Read, my old friend from our graphics course at Epsom School of Art. I take part in the annual exhibition each December, and have enjoyed many painting holidays in France & Cornwall with the club. During the pandemic lockdowns of 2020-21 I edited the PAC newsletter which gave me reason to research and write about artists as diverse as Henry Moore, E.H. Shepherd and Adrian Hill.
Echoes
61 x 50cms, acrylic on board
This view from my living-room was my response to a SCOLA project we’d been set called “Inside/Out”. It was one of the paintings I entered for the 2015 Artists & Illustrators Exhibition, and was displayed at London’s Mall Galleries.