Introduction

When I first started painting as a student at Colchester school of Art in the 1960s, my subjects and motifs, were invariably taken from the landscape of East Anglia especially the marginal lands where the sea creeps in over salt marsh or views such as that from Beaumont over Landermere towards the Naze, where the two elements appear to merge. I soon found that to express the huge skies and broad horizons, I would need a more suitable medium than oil paint and so I started experimenting with acrylics, which were relatively new in the sixties. Encouraged by my tutors I began to work on a larger scale. As my paintings became larger I started to abstract from drawings and paint sketches to make abstract or semi abstract paintings, albeit derived from landscape. My first noteworthy attempt at this format was taken from a flowering cherry I remembered outside the library window at school, which had distracted me during a rather bleak period in my life. My tutor, Bill Packer at Colchester, referred me to a similar subject by the Anglo-Australian artist Charles Conder. This connection came back to me on a visit to Australia, when viewing work by the Heidelberg School, and being struck by the quality of work by, amongst others, Clarice Beckett.  Colchester gave me a grounding in and love of English and Dutch landscape, the likes of Jakob van Ruysdael, Turner, Constable, the two Nashes, Paul particularly, but also John, whom I met briefly at Colchester art school.

At Reading University, studying Fine Art, I was exposed to a much more internationalist influence particularly American and especially ‘colour field’ painting, which after some initial hesitation, I realised was not inimical to my own developing style. The seventies were an exciting time in art history with the rise of the  conceptual and post-modern. I was not immune to these influences and was exposed to the work of, amongst others, Joseph Beuys and Daniel Buren. My art history tutor, Caroline Tisdall introduced me to both of them. Also at Reading, strong, memorable tutors were Roger Cook, Terry Frost, and one of the best of all, Prunella Clough.

After University, although eventually working as a full-time lecturer, I continued to paint and exhibit, often with my friend Jon Page, sometimes in group shows and a number of one-man shows in England and in Italy, most of which  are listed in my biographical details. See my blog for updates about work and shows.