I have always loved wildlife and the countryside and spent much of my working life as a Gamekeeper, Ranger and eventually Area Manager for the Lake District National Park. Redundancy gave me the opportunity to combine my other great interest, art, with the closer study of wildlife and whenever other commitments allow I like to get away and observe the wonderful wildlife that this country still has. That study of wildlife has received a tremendous boost with my recent appointment as the manager of the South Walney Nature Reserve near Barrow in Furness. I now live on the reserve in a former coast guards cottage and am looking forward to a new phase in my life where an even closer association with wild creatures will hopefully inform and inspire my work.

I was fortunate to meet the water colourist, Len Roope who encouraged and inspired me as he did so many others. Although I do still paint, especially outdoors I do so mainly for my own enjoyment. It is in the field of ceramic sculpture that I have developed to the stage where my work sells in galleries and exhibitions. I have been fortunate enough to be selected for the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art for the last two years and even more fortunate to have sold my work there.

Most of my ceramic work has British wildlife as the subject, particularly birds but sometimes fish and mammals as well. Over the years that I have been developing as a ceramicist I have tried a range of different techniques. Initially I was very keen on paperclay with a smoke fired finish. More recently I have started to produce work that is finished with oxides and high fired to stoneware temperatures. I am currently experimenting with producing my own clay slips and a technique known as “scraffito” where a pattern is incised through the slip.