I was born in Ashington in 1971 and brought up in north Northumberland. This has left an indelible impression on me and gave me a fascination with nature, history and a sense of place. If I can credit myself with 'exploring' anything in my work, it's these things.

A graduate in English and History, I spent ten years as a full-time English teacher, and after years studying and teaching "seize the day/ life is short" texts, the message finally got through.

I have always been interested in art, despite turning up to so few A-Level Art lessons. The law of diminishing returns meant I left off formal study of it after the first year at college, when it was clear that two years of bunking off was having repercussions, so I took History instead and the Art went underground into my spare time and doodling on various agenda in Department meetings.

 I took up photography when digital SLRs came on the market and took the daunting dark room out of the equation; the expense of buying one pushed me into learning how to use it properly.

In photography I do work in colour but find black and white a subtle and delicate medium which removes images from the familiar and perhaps makes us look at things more closely.

This too is one of the great things that happens as a result of painting and drawing, it cleans up the perceptions and makes you look at what is actually there - forms, shadows and colours - rather than what you assume is there. This is very exciting, and I hope some of this interest and excitement at the world and how to express it comes through in my work.

As for the comic art, I can only hold my hands up - I'm a child of the Beano. It was as formative to me as where I grew up, and when you plant a Beano this is what grows out of it.

We moved to the Scottish Borders in 2010, and it's proving as inspiring as it is beautiful. A day turns out to be a slippery beggar to seize hold of, but hopefully what you see on these pages is the beginning of something new. Work, practice, improve. That's the idea.

Please use the contact form if you want to ask anything, or talk about commissioning work.

Thanks for coming by; I hope you enjoy what you see.