About Me
Exhibitions
Royal Society of Marine Artists: I have twice been exhibited at the RSMA Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, in 2019 and 2020.
Guild of Aviation Artists: I have had work included in the GAVA 2022 Online Exhibition.
Galleries
The Wallington Gallery: I have a number of artworks available for sale at the Wallington Gallery.
Prints of my Portobello painting are also available at Portobello Frame King, on Portobello High Street.
I was born in 1984 in Edinburgh and I grew up in Portobello, one of the city’s suburbs. This part of the city is right on the seashore, so I have always felt very connected to the ocean and water in general. I haven’t always painted. I spent a long time, as everyone does, trying to discover what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. When I eventually got to university, I started studying politics but left with a degree in archaeology! It was archaeology that probably set me on my path to becoming a painter, as it is actually a very visual subject; there is near constant use of imagery to recreate past structures, landscapes, or whatever else is being studied. The creativity involved in archaeology really helped me reconnect with art in a way I had not done for years. This made me realise that I wanted a job where I could use that creativity I knew I had within me.
There are many influences on my art, and one of the major influences is not quite so obvious. I have mild autism - previously known as Aspergers - and this has had a definite impact on my work. The primary impact is that I paint realistically in all my work, often with a lot of repetitive detail. I do not paint abstract works or use any kind of abstract, impressionistic, or contemporary styles; this is not because I think there is anything wrong with them, I just can’t. My brain is wired up in a way that means I see things in a very real and literal sense. My consequent perfectionism means I set myself a high standard and I spend time working on each painting to achieve this, Living with autism is not easy and I work hard to embrace what makes me different and use it in my art as positively as I can.