My self-taught route has been through most ‘isms’ known to art history: Impressionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Surrealism and now Magic Realism.

I have painted detailed botanical watercolours for a Florida Orchid Society; stage backcloths with a 3inch brush and emulsion paint for various performing groups, and portraits – both highly finished oil paintings in the peace of my studio, and pen and ink and sepia wash in the street with a dozen people peering over my shoulder.  I have exhibited extensively in England, America and Portugal.

I love colour and light; the beauty of fine detail and the emotion of the broad sweep.  The peace of Dutch interiors and the romanticism of the Pre-Raphaelites.  And I change my style with each new series of paintings because I can never capture everything I want in just one way.

My current obsession is with linocut printing, firstly because it is a new technique to be explored and also because you are almost forced to look at the world in a different way – which, to me, is the prime joy of being an artist.