Horse racing is filled with vibrant colour and movement. It seemed like a natural progression from painting horses in polo, so I turned to the Racing Post and the Guardian sports section and found various images to start working from. Painting from pictures that I hadn't taken myself was a departure for me, as there were areas that were ambiguous and I had to rely on artistic license or a sense of composition to make artistic decisions. I jotted down the name of the image on the newspaper but didn't give it much more thought. I now cannot enter these images in competitions as despite my best effort, I couldn't locate the original photographer to ask for copyright. I shan't be doing that again!

I absolutely love dogs. I am passionate about rescuing dogs, and have had a few from Spain and now Portugal. This passion extends to doing drawings and paintings of them. I do commissions. It usually involves a meeting, some photographs, sketches and eventually a portrait.

I've been sketching portraits for years. I started as a child doing pictures of everything and everyone around me. I then took a portraiture diploma at Heatherley's School of Art and I started doing oil paintings of people and animals. I have included mostly images of sitters from my time at Heatherley's here, and there is a self-portrait of me with cars. Somewhere I have all the names of the different sitters and I will add them when I find them!

I was given my first commission to paint a cat for my sister’s best friend’s wedding. I travelled to the East End to meet and photograph Pablo. He was very compliant despite having a few strange traits when eyeing the birds in their garden. 

In 2008 I was watching the BBC News and they mentioned the first British Beach Polo Championships at Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset, was taking place in July. I contacted them and asked if I could get a press pass to take some pictures. I had a fantastic day taking several hundred pictures and did a few sketches, which turned into a series of five paintings and some oil sketches.

I've divided horse racing into two sections 'Jump' racing and 'Flat' racing. There is definitely a different colour palette and rhythm to each. Most of these paintings were done from newspaper cuttings, except Starjac, which is a mock up from various pictures taken by his owner.

I started drawing and taking pictures of the folly known as the ‘Eyecatcher’ in 2011 when my father died. It is on a hill and has amazing views all the way round.

According to the listed buildings website: “It was built c.1740 by William Kent. It is made of Naristone rubble with squared dressings. A folly in the form of a high wall, the top of which rises over three graduated arched openings and is ornamented with 11 rubble pinnacles. The front has shallow buttresses, and there are large raking buttresses to rear. The Eyecatcher stands on the skyline of the principal view from Rousham Park, and forms an important feature of Kent's landscape design, It is one of the earliest examples of a sham ruin.”

During my walks around the folly, the landscape changed constantly throughout the day and with the change of seasons. I did a lithography course at the Oxford Printmakers and produced a limited edition of six prints. I’ve included all sketches and lithographs here.

I started drawing and taking pictures of the folly known as the ‘Eyecatcher’ in 2011 when my father died. It is on a hill and has amazing views all the way round. 

According to the listed buildings website: “It was built c.1740 by William Kent. It is made of Naristone rubble with squared dressings. A folly in the form of a high wall, the top of which rises over three graduated arched openings and is ornamented with 11 rubble pinnacles. The front has shallow buttresses, and there are large raking buttresses to rear. The Eyecatcher stands on the skyline of the principal view from Rousham Park, and forms an important feature of Kent's landscape design, It is one of the earliest examples of a sham ruin.”

During my walks around the folly, the landscape changed constantly throughout the day and with the change of seasons. I used sketches to develop two plates, one using a view from Cow Lane looking up, the other looking behind the folly towards Rousham. I then did a series of drypoints, watercolours and monoprints. Each print is unique which is why they don’t have numbers.

My brother Will played grass polo and didn’t have his drivers license so I drove him a couple of times to Kirtlington and took pictures, brought my sketchbook along. This developed into a whole new series of oil paintings and led to me painting horses in horse racing as well. 

Loulou is the only pet parrot I’ve ever painted and I'm hoping to be painting other animals, either wild or domestic. I took several photos of Loulou, Stephen and Fabrice's parrot, and am really pleased with the outcome. Funnily enough, when she was sent away on holiday for the summer, Fabrice kept the painting in her cage to pretend she was there!

In this section I’ve included all the landscapes that don’t feature the folly! I took some very inspiring pictures and did some sketches down by the canal in Heyford. The gnarly willow trees are wonderful to draw and etch.

In early 2018, I decided to have a solo exhibition in Bicester for Artweeks. I wanted to challenge myself in a different way so chose ‘dressage’ as my new theme. It was definitely a challenge! I wanted to see if by doing a very tight, almost technical drawing, I would be able to then paint loosely. Once I completed the drawings on board of the four images I had chosen, I then realised all that detail would be lost. I decided to trace them and etch them so that I could try different printmaking techniques. There are four original oil paintings and a series of drypoints with watercolour. I expect there will be more to follow but these are the eight I included in my Artweeks exhibit at Stansfield & Hoole, Market Square, Bicester in May that year.