The Old Jetty Painting

I was born in Newcastle, Australia in 1946 but have been living in Brisbane for over twenty years. I have appreciated and enjoyed art all my life but never painted seriously. In November 2014 I decided to join a local art group. It wasn’t a class for art instruction but a meeting of talented artists that were led by a known professional artist providing an environment of encouragement, development and guidance. In the beginning my art was naïve, but I kept working on technique. I attended every Wednesday and I also wrote a book about the first 52 weeks of discovery (some 120,000 words). At the start of 2016 art discovered me and I found my own style (abstract expressionism). Around about the same time I was fortunate to be taken aside by one of New Zealand’s foremost supporter of the arts, Paul Dallimore CSO. Paul has spent a lifetime supporting and encouraging emerging artists in New Zealand. He liked the raw individuality in my work and encouraged me to move from painting small works, and paint big canvasses. I took his advice. Since then I have developed my own fluid, uninhibited style. I have never been a man bound by rules or tradition, and so it is with my paintings. I like the freedom to paint what is in my heart, mind and soul. I currently have about two hundred completed paintings and at least half of these are large works. Last year I started an Instagram gallery and currently I have over 3000 followers. I have paintings in private collections in England, New Zealand, and Australia.