HISTORY

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I can trace my desire and need to paint back to when I was around ten years of age.

 

It was triggered by trips in my father's little motor boat. Experiencing the beauty of the Truro river and Fal estuary from on the water made me want to capture and relive those moments.

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I was fortunate to have a very supportive headmaster at primary school - himself a competent painter - and with his guidance and time, I began to produce paintings that brought me pleasure and attracted attention, even at that early age. The school entered my work in local competitions and I won a number of awards.

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After joining Truro School aged 11, again I was fortunate to have tuition that allowed me to develop my style and technique. I studied Art at A-Level before gaining a place at Shoreditch Teacher Training College, which was then affiliated to London University. There I studied to become a teacher, in both boys' handicrafts (now Design Technology) and Art, before studying for a fourth year to gain an Honours degree in Fine Art.

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During my studies I was able to develop my abilities to portray the beauty of my native Cornwall. At my end of year show I sold nearly every canvas and was approached to create a number of commissioned pieces. I was humbled by the attention.

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INSPIRATION AND METHOD

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I have lived at Malpas, overlooking the Truro River, for many years now, and I have never tired of the beauty and variety of the scenery around me, and that of the rest of the Fal Estuary. I am captivated by everything about the riverscapes of Cornwall: the colours, the sounds, the ever-changing scenery, the motion of the water, the clouds, the reflections. I love the the visual effects on the landscape of the tides' relentless rise and fall, and the more dramatic changes wrought by the seasons.

 

I try to capture the moments that are so very often fleeting, the combination of sun and inevitable Cornish clouds changing the light almost by the minute. Painting “live” brings other challenges too: numb hands in winter and being  eaten alive by insects in summer. I vary my method, depending on the circumstances, sometimes working on location and sometimes from sets of images.

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