Welcome
Welcome to my artworks website which operates as a virtual open studio showing the work I have been busy with. Artworks are loosely arranged into collections based on where I have spent much of my time painting.
I did A-level art at school but trained as an ecologist and have worked in conservation most of my life. I kept my art going as a hobby really and only recently have I been able to concentrate on painting full time. I am now happy to be able to use my artworks to draw attention to key conservation issues and also to raise a bit of money for campaigns.
Wales & Pembrokeshire Collection
I have always been drawn to wild places and to begin with this was just a walk up Caerphilly Mountain behind our home in Cardiff. Our summer holidays to Solva in Pembrokeshire were more enticing and this is where I now find home with its storm-swept coastline and wind-sculpted trees.
I came back to our family farm in Solva from Africa in 2001 and worked in raptor conservation and setting up a biological records centre for West Wales, which was a great link to all the experts working in natural history for this area, subsequently running a mapping consultancy here until 2024.
The collection of West Wales artworks is growing.
The Karoo, South Africa, Collection
I moved to South Africa in 1985 to take a position studying Springbok with the Mammal Research Institute and this involved sitting on a windmill in the Karoo for 80 days on the Conroy’s farm. It was such an extraordinary introduction to the wildlife of the plains in this huge ecosystem, largely undiscovered at the time. For company I had a young pacifist Martial Eagle and a tame Meerkat!
My growing passion for the Karoo and raptors led on to a study of Black Eagles and Hyrax in the mountains, known as koppies, and here I was fortunate to witness the creation of a new national park in South Africa and meet the people involved in this process.
After my PhD I spent a year travelling around the outer limits of the Karoo in my converted studio combi with my Jack Russell Beanie.
During the nine years I spent in and around the Karoo I built up a collection of some 500 artworks depicting the natural history of the place.
Wildlife Further Afield Collection
After the Karoo I had to contend with the ‘big smoke’ of Johannesburg for 10 years but these were filled with many happy adventures to the African savannas with colleagues and friends.
I ran a wildlife art course in Joburg and I embarked on what turned out to be quite a long art project with author Bill Clark, illustrating all the birds of prey of Africa (and there are many varieties) for a fieldguide which has been published by Bloomsbury. At the same time my working career developed in the field of mapping for conservation agencies.
On my return to Wales I was amazed to discover a true savanna in Europe where the cork oaks grow in Extremadura in Spain and Alentejo in Portugal.
All my artworks from this and other trips into the wild are grouped in the Wildlife collection.