began to paint in a manner inspired especially by Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh. This freed me from the frustrations and difficulties that my lack of traditional drawing skills caused. I began to experiment and enjoy a licence to make art.

My interest in painting grew. In 1981 I enrolled at college again, now taking art at pre-art school level. I visited art museums more and was tending to be influenced by the modern stuff, by now having an appreciation of the likes of Picasso and Klee. By 1983 I was familiar with Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. This was soon showing in my work as I began to experiment with automatism through doodle-like drawing, sourcing from within rather than from the exterior world. Whether

doodling with a ballpoint pen or applying paint, the same basic

Doodle with Collage C.1985

principles of spontaneity apply. This grounding in using the subconscious is still the basis for my painting today, although now I work in a much more structured and skilful way.

I failed to go the next stage by being declined a place on an art foundation course and succumbing to the follies of youth, I dropped out of college and decided I would become a self-taught artist. My painting now developed more slowly and although I occasionally made a good picture, my lack of focus caused an enormous setback.

Over the next few years, I did some painting here and there entering many art competitions and submitted for group shows always being rejected. I twice applied to participate at Sir Anthony Caro’s Triangle Workshop.  More…>