I blame it all on Gavin Maughfling, an inspirational artist and tutor at Putney School of Art and Design. On retirement I joined his class on oil painting and was hooked in three lessons. A collector and avid gallery visitor, I had never painted or drawn, not even at school but then I journeyed from Putney to a Foundation at Chelsea and then Wimbledon for a Fine Art degree.
I am truly of the “Golden Generation”. Born in 1942, and unconscious of any real deprivation during or after the war, if we passed the 11 plus, the world was at our feet. A couple of A levels meant University. There was full employment, no National Service, the swinging sixties, travel and hippy trails and Anti Apartheid, CND and the Vietnam War to provide serious discussion and activism in an increasingly liberal society (we have since gone backwards). Relative to salaries housing was cheap, the pension boom was beginning. There was a creative explosion.
So with degrees in the humanities from UCL, Oxford and Saskatchewan in Canada, I enjoyed an international business career in Xerox and a global consulting firm where I headed up the international practice. I lived in North America, Iran and Singapore and visited over 60 countries. I was elected President of the Management Consultancies Association and published a best selling business book in 9 languages. I was non-executive Chairman of a leading British Design Agency. I also held non executive directorships in a variety of companies.
In parallel, as a socialist I stood for Parliament twice for Labour, developed policy, acted as the personal advisor to its General Secretary from 1994-7 (helping reform the party resulting in the subsequent landslides), played a small role in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations and served on a Foreign Office Commission.
The devastation wrought by the Tory coalition to the economic, social, educational, welfare and cultural life of the UK, under the guise of necessary austerity, and continued blindly by the incompetent and ideologically driven May, Johnson, Truss and now Sunak’s Governments, screwing up the so-called Brexit negotiations, has rekindled my political activism in deadly earnest. In the last 3 -4 years my art has suffered but for a good cause!
Wilderness travel is in my DNA and time in Antarctica, the Namibian desert, the Andes in Ecuador and Patagonia, Nepal and Lapland are among the key influences on my practice.
My wife and I divide our time between London and Tisbury, we greatly enjoy our children and grandchildren.
Since graduating I have participated in solo and group shows in the UK, USA and Italy.