I was inspired to pick up my pencils once again by a Kew Gardens exhibition of botanical paintings from the Amazon rainforest by Margaret Mee, and joined Maidenhead Painting Club in 1989, working regularly in watercolour and pastel at portrait and still-life sessions.  I was privileged to work alongside, and learn much from, several of the Club's professional artists – this was my 20-year apprenticeship!

For further experience and new challenges I have travelled abroad many times on painting trips with groups of other artists, travelling to Zanzibar, and, with watercolour artist Lucy Willis, to Spain, Morocco, Crete, Venice, Syria and Malta, where painting outdoors "en plein air" in wind and rain, cold and heat, is a very different experience from indoor work. I’ve also had the privilege of attending painting and drawing workshops led by Victor Ambrus, Charles Reid and Ken Howard. 

My subject matter is wide-ranging – portraiture, figure, landscape, still-life and wildlife. A common theme is that I (almost) always paint and draw directly from life.  Here are some recent examples of my work; the two portraits and the life drawing were all from recent NEAC sessions.