I was born in Wiltshire in 1954, and spent a lot of my childhood reading and copying pictures from comics, and soon discovered this was the only thing I was any good at.

In 1972 I did a three year course in graphic design at Salisbury Collage of Art, and spent the final year doing freelance illustration for magazines and record covers.

It was also at this time I discovered horseracing at the nearby course, and found I had a talent for losing money. To suppliment this I started drawing and painting racing subjects.

The first racehorse I painted was owned by the local pub landlord who hadn’t told his wife about it, after backing it in several races I and several of the regulars wished he had kept it a secret from us as well. Since then thankfully the standard of subject has improved and I have painted many of the top horses, for leading owners and trainers.

On leaving college I carried on illustrating ,but found that there were far more talented people doing it than me, so did a variety of less artistic jobs  from serving petrol to being a postman.