Born in Wigan, England in 1957 I studied painting and printmaking at Wigan College and Sunderland University. After leaving art college in 1980 I won two painting scholarships, to New York and Istanbul, as well as the Sunderland Fine Art prize. Since then I have continually worked in the creative industries, teaching, illustrating and exhibiting in New York, Quebec, Ghent, Dublin, London and around the UK in numerous one-man and group shows since the early 1980s. I am a member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art, the Printmakers Council and the Royal Birmingham Society of Arts. I have work in private collections around the world and public collections in the UK.
Drawing is the key element in my work and has been since art college. It is a diary, an academic exercise and a way to work through ideas. My work is colourful and structured that moves from tightly figurative to the symbolic/iconographic work linked to my genealogical research. I prefer linocut, its strong, flat colour and its mark-making suit my working methods. I like how its graphic appearance seems immediate but can actually take many days of work to produce. Although I continue to paint over the last few years printmaking has come to the fore.
Like most people I do have influences and if I had to make a short list they would be; Edgar Degas and Egon Schiele for their draftsmanship, Georges Braque, Keith Vaughan and Eric Ravilious for their very different painting methods and Bawden for his printmaking.