ILLUSTRATIONS FOR CHILDREN

I spent a number of years painting for art galleries, and a real luxury it was too!
I'm not sure why or how it happened but probably when I was working on my sketches whilst out on the boat viewing the wildlife in some secluded bay, a place where I am more me, and my sketches were less about producing work that might look good on someones living room wall, and more about a reaction to my surroundings,the humour in wildlife, how birds and other animals interact with each other and their surroundings, and how most of the time they are pretty laid back about each other. I think this started off when I was feeding a swan and a seagull came along and landed on its back, I couldn't believe how the swan tolerated this, even putting up with the seagull when it pinched the odd bit of bread... I think because of this I started to produce work that was very much from my heart.

This is a little painting which I went on to produce from the ideas of animals working together, and one I am working on to take further into a portfolio of images.