An artist's inspiration and competency is not separable from their experience, interests and personality. If it is, then what they produce is not art.

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I was born in England, and grew up in Holland and South Africa. I have travelled in 25 countries and have called New Zealand home for the past 15 years. In that time I have explored most main corners of my adopted country. I don't sit still. When I was 23 I rode a motorbike 15000km around the lower half of Africa, and travelled overnight in a public bus in Thailand with my passport hidden in my underwear. I surfed in Hong Kong, and rock climbed in Squamish, Canada. These days I'm lucky enough to fly into remote locations in Fiordland and camp in the bush for a week at a time. 

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I build things and fix things.  I always have. As an example I can, and do, fix and rebuild engines and gearboxes, and build my own kitchens (and every other room). Working with my hands is in my nature, and design comes naturally. I am still physically active, a runner, adventurer, sometimes cyclist, kayaker, and, going back in time, a keen surfer and rock climber. I captain a masters cricket team in the summer. I can pick up a musical instrument and hold a tune, having played soprano saxophone for 25 years. I have an intense interest in language and the affinity that that instills in me for other cultures - I am fluent in Afrikaans and Spanish, and have a growing competency in Mandarin to around HSK2/3 level.

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I was twelve when I received my first paid art commission, a portrait sitting. Probably because the customer had seen one of my youthful charcoal portraits. I became more interested in landscape than portraits, and then I got interested in portraits again. In the meantime I studied and worked as an Engineering Geologist (Honours Cum Laude), before packing that in to become a landscape photographer, printing my own colour and black and white photographs in a darkroom using equipment I built myself. I even built my own 6x17cm panoramic camera. I now build my own anamorphic lenses, and my interest in photography has extended into cinematography.

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Over the course of about 10 years I sold over 3000 photographs as fine art, had a book published, and worked with wealthy clients, corporates, hotels and interior designers.  Then I relocated to the other side of the world with my family and started all over again, in a different era. Now my focus is on photorealism, expressionism and large mixed media artworks. That should be obvious from this website.

 

I have exhibited at well more than two hundred locations (shows, galleries) and have won people's choice awards and special mentions. I have been featured in magazines when those still existed.

 

And then the only thing that matters after all of the above is whether my next piece of art has value, presence, emotion and a reason to exist. 

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