I specialize in traditional watercolours and highly detailed miniatures.

 

I was born in Darlington and have enjoyed painting since childhood.  On leaving school, I worked for 28 years at NatWest Bank and then took Voluntary Redundancy.  This gave me more time to develop my art work.  I served as Hon. Secretary of Darlington Society of Arts from 1977 to 2007, painting outdoors with the group and attending painting holidays.  In 1996 (after leaving the Bank) I first attempted painting miniatures, using stippled watercolour on the plastic ground of Ivorine or Polymin.  The different technique took some time to master, but in 2003 to my amazement I started winning awards, including the Royal Miniature Society's Gold Memorial Bowl in 2005, and the Prince of Wales Award for Outstanding Miniature Painting in 2013.

 

I find inspiration for my paintings in the local countryside around North Yorkshire and South Durham and continue to paint en plein air during the summer, when I always have a camera handy in case I come across an interesting subject for a more complex watercolour or a miniature painting.  Some subjects are more suitable for a larger work than a miniature, and painting in loose washes comes as a welcome break from the labour-intensive way of building up layers of stippled colour.  I paint a wide range of representational subjects, sometimes composed from several photos, sketches & memories.  My favourite place to visit is Beamish Museum, where I can find costumed figures, working animals, and vintage vehicles/machinery.  Over the years I have painted in excess of 100 subjects from this source.  I also visit local agricultural shows such as Masham Sheep Fair.

 

I am an elected member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters Sculptors & Gravers and The Hilliard Society.  As there is little interest in miniatures in the North East, I tend to paint local landscapes in traditional watercolours, and domestic/farm animals, figures and other 'general' subjects in miniature.  However, I like to challenge myself to find different subjects.