I had a conventional upbringing in the south east of England, until I left school and travelled alone down Africa for a year. I returned, a little reluctantly, to study Classics at Oxford University, and went on to become a journalist, working for various national papers and magazines. During this period I also composed crosswords and won a BAFTA for copywriting a history of communication. Then one evening I passed an art school near to where I was working in London. Everything changed. Three months later I left the UK and enrolled full time in an atelier in Florence, funding my tuition by compiling crosswords. My first exhibition followed a year later in London and I haven't looked back since. Here is something I wrote for a recent show in New York: 'I think art is more important than ever now. For one thing it is not functional – which is pretty rare. Even games and toys nowadays have to be justified as educational, and with the wonders of modern communication, those undistracted, aimless moments are rare. But mainly it opens us to other ways of seeing. It shows there is more to the world than us and that not everything that is valuable is quantifiable, measurable, wholly rational. Love is like that too. I also think there is always space for something beautiful.' I work on a commission basis too. This usually takes the form of portraits or landscapes and more recently I completed work for a number of prominent golf clubs in the US and Europe. In the summer of 2017, I finished a large painting for Quail Hollow, where the USPGA was held. I am currently working on a painting of Augusta National during The Masters as well as a large oil of the West Side Tennis Club, at Forest Hills, New York where the US Open used to take place. I currently live in Tuscany and the UK with my wife, five children and too many animals.