From an early age I have always been interested in drawing and, to a lesser extent, painting.  I did 'A' level Art at school and did a foundation art course as a part of my teacher training at S. Katherines College in Liverpool.  Art wasn't my main subject and I never actually taught art in my teaching career.

I have never considered myself an artist but I have always been very happy doodling away on anything I could find.  Gradually I found I was doing less and less drawing from observation and becoming much more interested in repetitive lines, shade, light and colour.  I found out about the work of Bridget Riley and seeing her work live and close up totally blew me away.  

Retirement and lockdown coincided which left me with time on my hands along with a lot of paint and materials.  I wanted to break out of the restrictions of striving to complete a 'nice' picture which I had always found tedious, hard work and ultimately unsatisfying.   I had to stop trying to do stuff that I thought other people would like and instead only judge my work by how good it made me feel.  But where to start?

I had been intrigued by Mark Rothko but didn't understand why.  I started looking at his colour field paintings and the total lack of shape or even a suggestion of an object.  It was all about the emotion.  How does it make you feel?

So off I went painting dozens of pictures as experiments inspired by Rothko.  Finished or unfinished, it really didn't matter.  I looked at some of Rothko's associates, in particular Barnett Newman who also inspired some of my work.

Sometimes I incorporate elements of Riley, Rothko and Newman into my paintings without realising it.  There are occasions when the influence of all three are apparent in the same picture.

Encouragement from friends and family, and a chance conversation with the landlady of the Purleigh Bell near Maldon, who has an art gallery for local artists, led me to having my first exhibition in 2022.  

Since then I have exhibited at the Leigh on Sea Fishermans Chapel, the Leigh on Sea Community Centre, The Purleigh Bell again this year and have some of my pictures on display at The Live and Let Live public house near where I live in Colchester.

Recent commissions

Two acrylic on canvas paintings using the blue wall paint as the base layer on both pictures.

Each picture 100 X 81 cm