I’ve always hated dealing with these ‘about’ pages. The expectation that you’re required to blow trumpets and take a deep dive into ‘one’s artistic practice’, and then feature a stunning C.V.…gaah! I have avoided that in the past by ignoring the usual way points and served up a ‘once upon a time’ life story. It’s all true, so let’s go.

I was born the only son of a handsome naval gunner, George and his wife Violet, a mercurial factory worker, then laterly poultry woman. I grew up in Scotland’s east coast, living in series of isolated cottages and hamlets in that fertile triangle of land that’s marked out by the pinky sandstone towns of Montrose, Brechin and Forfar. Something that still taints everything I do.

I’m a one time library assistant, harbour security officer (with my own torch, peaked military peaked hat and hand held two way radio) and following that I was a Pitch and Put attendant (with responsibility for the trampolines and adjacent public toilets). The future seemed… bright.

I left Montrose to study photography in Edinburgh. It was there that I bought himself a Hofner guitar and with college friends, I formed a band. I began photographing the music scene in Scotland, having work published in NME and Sounds etc before graduating and accidentally beginning a career in theatre photography. I was commissioned by everyone from Scottish Opera to the hugely influential ‘Postcard Records of Scotland’... then, I’d had enough. I still have stress dreams about photography assignments. Therapy awaits.

I wrote a novel about death. Set in Brechin during the 1960’s, it’s called ‘Slippery Fish’ and is, as yet, unpublished.

I started painting in 2013. I never really wanted to be a photographer is the honest truth, I always wanted to be a painter. At school, as a working class boy I was funnelled into mechanics and technical drawing to feed the needs of local factories. Art was above me. I remember back then reading a quote from David Bailey, ‘ all you need to be a photographer is a Pentax and a leather jacket.’ I liked that. I immediately bought myself a Minolta and a charity shop corduroy car coat.

I work mostly with oils paint, creating a world of characters whose bodies seem to share something of the botanical, with little attention given to anatomical rules. A hand held closer to the sun may have grown under its control, while feet may have withered in the shadows.

Over the past few years I’ve has had two solo exhibitions in Sydney, Australia; ‘Golden Age’ in 2020 and ‘Everything Matters’ in 2022. Previous solo shows in the UK, have been ‘Women and Men’ at Edinburgh’s Union Galley and ‘Honeymoon’ at the Stallan-Brand Gallery in Glasgow.

I paint, like all artist do, because I have to.