Old orangery at Calke Abbey Painting

I am an ex-firefighter turned artist. After university I spent more than 30 years in the fire & rescue service, during which time I found painting was a perfect antidote to the stresses of my operational working life. I committed myself fully to art in 2008 after retirement and have spent the last 13 years finding my distinctive artistic voice. I am by admission an instinctive artist. Almost wholly self-trained, my only formal qualification is an Art GCE “O” level from my schooldays. Even so my artwork is bought by private collectors around the world and has secured gallery space throughout the UK as well as here in my native Derbyshire where I work from my home studio in Swanwick. My most recent successes are being selected to exhibit in the prestigious Harley Gallery Open and ING Discerning Eye exhibitions 2020. This year 2022 I also exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Mainly an artist in oils my output can be diverse & wide-ranging. I draw inspiration from any combination of light and form that strikes a chord from my background. Apart from my current focus on still life and portraiture my output has included landscapes & urban scenes and more figurative/abstract work. But whatever the subject matter my painterly style is characterized by a trademark vibrancy of colour and attention to fine detail, sometimes accompanied by a slightly surreal twist. I consider myself a contemporary artist who paints in a traditionalist manner. My greatest aspiration is to develop a signature style that is recognisably my own. But for some of it to mean something to someone else and to give lasting pleasure would be the ultimate payback. I am always trying to exhibit more so I can share my work......but it’s not the reason I paint, it never was. Painting for me just calms my soul, it’s my private world. It has to be, or it wouldn’t work for me. I don’t have preferred subject matter. Instead my imagination is fired by the unexpected in everyday things, or by a memory, or even by words – particularly poetry. Sometimes just part of a remembered image - perhaps something simple like sunlight playing on a hat brim - can be enough. There is a certain strength or beauty inside everything if you look hard enough – it doesn’t have to be something intrinsically pretty, or attractive or especially worthy of attention. Quite often it is better if it isn’t.