About
About me
Born in Worsley, Lancashire. I lived for a while on the Wirral where I taught Art, and currently live in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.
Teaching
I began teaching art in 1983 having completed my degree course in 3 Dimensional Design in 1982 and PCGE for teaching the following year. I moved to the Wirral where I taught art and hand-built pottery to 11-18 yr olds for 9 years. A few years later, in 2004 I tutored some adult courses over a period of 5 years in magazine design and layout skills, photoshop skills and in building websites.
Design
In 1996 I bought my first computer and began to teach myself graphic design and web design. This continued to be my main area of work up until recently.
Art
I’ve always had the ability to draw for which I am very grateful, though the drawing tuition I received whilst at Manchester Polytechnic brought much needed further improvement. My skills in painting, however required a lot more work and practice, and had their greatest development during my years teaching art and the immediate years after. Now, having deviated for a time to pursue design, I am returning to the painting work, along with my pottery, full time.
Pottery
My interest in wheel thrown pottery dates back to seeing students throwing pots whilst at 6th form college. After gaining my Arts and Crafts A’level I decided to choose a degree course that gave me the opportunity to develop my pottery throwing skills to a much higher level.
I currently have a pottery workshop based at Carisbrooke Priory on the Isle of Wight. Pots are fired in a 9 cu ft propane gas kiln.
Piano
Since the age of eight I have been playing the piano, so that has come to be an important part of my life. I took my grade 8 piano when I was 18 and continued to practice regularly though to my late 30′s. I now have a Yamaha Clavinova CLP 280 which gets played on regularly. Current favourite pieces of mine are Chopin’s Scherzo no.2 and Schumann’s Kriesleriana. I also play a Yamaha P200 piano to lead the worship at a Christian Fellowship.