Born on a farm in 1948, a child of the National Health Service, I worked as a GP in East Grinstead, Sussex till 2008. But for the last 20 years I had become increasingly interested in Fine Art and then Art History. In the 1990’s I did an Access course at Maidstone in Kent, discovering Printmaking. I joined the Brighton Independent Printmakers and exhibited with them for two years at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea. Pottery, printmaking and painting courses educated me and showed me the richness of 20th Century Art. I started to show my work in my surgery waiting area.
All this was put in more perspective with an online course in Art History with the Art Institute. This opened my eyes to Art in the context of History itself.
All this has helped me move away from the preoccupations of the medical world. The experiences both as a GP, training others and working as an administrator had resulted in a very full life, but with the space that retirement now allowed I was being educated by art course tutors such as Robin Child, Emily Ball and more recently, Niel Bally.
In 2021 we moved from Sussex to the Welsh Borders. This area has its undoubted riches. Besides the mountains there are isolated churches, isolated farms and the space that Wales affords. The process of decay has long interested me, perhaps fed by the memories of old barns and cowsheds where I was brought up. The cycle of life and how to come to terms with it and could art be a useful metaphor for myself and others?
