Originally from Ayrshire in Scotland, I came to the North East to study fine art, graduating from Sunderland Polytechnic in 1989. I have worked as an artist in various settings including community arts, youth work, the probation service, and schools. I've been involved in street theatre as a performer, pyrotechnician, and costume and prop builder, however the main focus of my art practice has always been drawing and painting. In 2001 I retrained as an arborist and continue to work in arboriculture, while keeping up my art practice. I currently live and work in Co Durham.

What inspires me?  It's very impulsive and I try not to analyse my motivation; preferring to respond to inspiration as subjects presents themselves. I seem to be drawn to the everyday and the familiar, seeking out beauty and meaning in the seemingly mundane.

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I carry  a sketchbook everywhere I go, producing drawings and colour studies at every opportunity, a habit I've kept up since a schoolboy. The majority of my work is done directly from the subject as I love the immediacy and energy this brings.   I'm particularly fascinated by the play of light and weather on the landscape and the visual surprises it throws up.  I work in a variety of medium including graphite and ink for drawing, and for work in colour, watercolour, gouache and pastel have been my preferred mediums and in more recent years, I have been concentrating on working outdoors in oils.