When it all began
1972

This was the year I really started painting. I was about 16 at the time and only used oils.

Prior to this while still in primary school and on the way home from school I would go into the Town Hall and up the stairs to the Art Gallery. There was an oil painting of some horses pulling a cart, it fascinated me. I would get up close to look at the way it was painted. How could blobs of paint up close look so realistic from a distance? I would study almost every brush stroke – I just had to do this!

I sold most of my early works to family & friends and then the local hospital commissioned me to do 2 paintings. They liked them so much I was commissioned to do 2 more. The local paper wrote an article about it. I told newspaper I was 18 which wasn’t true but I used to go into the pub and that was the age.