I first started painting and drawing around the age of 12 inspired by American Graffiti and carried out arousal art for friends and family, mainly on bedroom walls.

My first commission was for my high school which had taken a shine to my drawings as a graffiti artist and asked me to produce a large mural for the games hall. This resulted in a 1 day release scheme from school to a traditional sign company from the age of 16.I was then fortunate to get a job as apprentice to a London based brewery artist where I stayed for 13 years learning the skills needed to carry out large commercial murals and traditional hand lettering skills.

This was the beginning of my love and passion for fine art, inspired by my growing love for old masters such as John Constable and L S Lowry. Over a six year period I worked on experimenting and copying with oils and acrylics, teaching myself based on the grounding I had received from my days of apprenticeship.

I am fascinated by the properties that paint can produce on canvas and seeing the old masters and how they applied their skills is still a wonder for me even today. I did pretty well learning to copy my techniques from old masters although I inevitably made a lot of mistakes along the way. In my paintings today I always try and put my old skills learnt as a mural artist and sign writer into the finished canvas and a combination of people and locations remain my inspiration.

I’m always inspired by anything that needs the skill of a steady hand set against a soft background and this, combined with a traditional pictorial approach, helps me stay true to my experience as a mural artist.

I like to be able to just express myself as best as I can and I feel I have a lot of work still to do. I’m an apprentice and also a teacher and if there’s one thing I have learnt with painting it is that whilst you can never learn enough, you seem to evolve with each painting that you do.