My desire to express myself thorough art started at an early age, messing about with clay in our garden in Harrow on the Hill. We moved to Plymouth and I was fortunate to be taught to paint by Wyn George. Wyn was a great influence and through his teaching I learnt to look for colour and form and to use drawing as a tool to develop ideas. At sixteen I went with my family to live in Gibraltar. It is difficult to explain what an enormous impact this had on me, but I found myself surrounded by the deep and vibrant colours of the Mediterranean. This had an immediate effect on my paintings, I just couldn’t put the brushes down, I painted in every spare minute. I had studied Maths and Physics at ‘A’ level along with Art, with a view to becoming an Architect. After the exams, I was at a loose end and quite by chance found myself at an evening class in ceramics. I touched the clay, and like so many others was instantly hooked.