About the Artist
Born in 1956 I was brought up in Yorkshire a few miles south of Leeds. I trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in the 1970s and have been an actor all my life featuring in films such as The Full Monty, TV series like Strike, and the 2023 film Allelujah. In 1988 graduated from Leeds Polytechnic with BA Combined Studies.
As a drama student I remember a sunny day in Camden sitting on a stone wall talking for over an hour about all the greens in a clump of moss with a mate studying at the Slade. He opened a door into the world of colour . After I graduated, I supplemented my acting work with painting local 'views' and selling them wherever I was living. In 2015 I finally had time to train properly and enrolled with the University for the Creative Arts/Open College of the Arts campus on BA Hons Painting. I have my degree show at the Cambridge Artspace 11th to 13th August, 2023. See my 'Degree Show' page for details and am due to graduate in January 2024.
Artist's Statement
I paint to make people happy and entertain them.
My colours are my actors and my canvas is my stage. I paint comedies where the colours have a riotous time falling in and out of love until the canvas is resolved and the world is returned to harmony and order.
Every canvas is a sugar rush of joy where the colours tell a different story.