My interest in drawing and painting probably began when my dad used to bring home tatty rolls of paper from his job at a bank's stationery department for me and my sister to scrawl on as kids. Art quickly became my favourite subject at school and I went on to study A-Level Art and Design and gained a place at the prestigious Bournville College of Art, though I wavered this to study for a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration at BIAD where my illustration tutor was a student of Quentin Blake's from the RCA (well, it's my claim to fame, and I'm sticking with it!). Since then I've worked as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, an in-house designer and a scenic artist for Walsall Illuminations, my largest complete painting being a whopping sixteen feet long and twelve feet high (I had to climb a wobbly scaffold to reach the top section, a hairy experience for me as I'm not good with heights!). Unfortunately, I've found most aspects of commercial art and design fairly unrewarding, so I made the decision to return to my artistic roots and concentrate on painting, with particular emphasis on the decorative influence of Art Nouveau and a hint of Fauvism, Impressionism and Cubism for good measure. I also enjoy writing and illustrating children's stories, so I plan to produce some more pieces reflecting that particular area of interest in the future. Thanks for looking!