Black Guardsman Sculpture

I live in London, in Battersea which is reasonably central and near the Thames and green areas (Commons), I walk both of them especially first thing. I think life around me; nature, people, politics, sport, culture, my life experience inspire me, I am widely read and educated, connected with stuff around me. I have travelled over most of the world and that also inspires me, from observing people on the move to or watching the world go by on 14 hour bus rides in India. I love India, apart from the usual things like colour, lushness, food, it's the enduring positive people who get my vote. I find it the most exciting and vibrant place on earth. Morocco is a place I have visited over many years, three hours from London and you are in a completely different culture and world. I love the desert. I have seen quite a bit of Africa lived there for a couple of years in Zimbabwe, recently been going to Zanzibar and Lamu, I like the mix of African and Islamic culture, brilliant local artists. In Europe the less well known Greek Islands attract me, always a place and people who seem to have retained soul. Although I was born in the middle England in a heavy industrial area I have now lived most of my life in London. It is a great place to see art inside or outside galleries. I am inspired and influenced by many artists and styles. Howard Hodgkin,Picasso, Basquiat, Paula Rego, Matisse, Eric Gill, African sculpture, Sonia Boyce, Rothko, David Smith, Singh Sisters, Pollock, Freud, Hockney, Georgia O'Keefe, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Grayson Perry and many others. I liked art at school but was too distracted by teenage life; motorbikes, night clubs girls etc., to do anything but quit school and immerse myself in it, probably not a good move on reflection, but no regrets. Later in London studied life drawing, modelling and wood carving I started making wood carvings and sculpture began painting and eventually took on a small studio, but at the time I was working and running my own company, had a young family, it just wasn't a practical way to sustain our life. So I turned to stuff I could do at home, drawing but mainly playing the guitar. I began making furniture when I had the chance and facilities whilst working to turn round offenders. Now I mainly paint preferably on wooden panels or plywood. Recycled timber I like but is very heavy to ship.