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Artist biography:

Born in 1964 at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Cheshire.

Up until the age of four I lived in Marple, Cheshire, then my parents moved to Knutsford in Cheshire, where I completed all my schooling up until the age of 18. I left  Knutsford High School with nine O Levels and three A Levels in Maths, Physics and Design.

After my A Levels I went straight to Coventry Polytechnic on a BA (Hons) Industrial Design degree course, which turned out to be a mistake as I was not happy there at all, I left after two miserable years.

The good thing about going to Coventry was that I could focus afterwards on what I enjoyed doing and what I was good at, which after taking up painting again whilst unemployed back in Manchester, turned out to be art! After a year doing odd-jobs, evening classes and signing on, I enrolled on a Foundation Art course at South Trafford College in West Timperley, Manchester, with a view to try and get on a Fine Art Degree course. I did very well at South Trafford, achieved a Distinction and regained my confidence, which led to being accepted on a BA (Hons) Degree course in Fine Art at Wolverhampton Polytechnic.

My three years at Wolverhampton were very enjoyable from a social point of view and I managed to get a lot of work done without ever being one of the bright stars. I did however try stone-carving for the first time which I found I had a knack for, but as I still was too involved with my painting I did not seriously pursue the carving. Leaving Wolverhampton, I returned to Manchester at a time when it seemed to be the centre of the world in terms of fashion and music (though not art). I again did casual work including technician work at South Trafford College before I decided I should try and get a teaching qualification to improve my job prospects. 

1990-1991 was the year I spent training for a PGCE in Art and Design (Secondary Education), also I was one of the founder members of Object Studios artists studio group in Manchester. I did not have much luck in finding teaching work once qualified however, I had to resort again to temporary technician and bar work. I did get more involved in the setting up of Object Studios, refurbishing a derelict building and establishing a working artistic environment ( I eventually left Object Studios in 2001) . My teacher training also opened my eyes to the great innovations happening in computer technology and particularly computer graphics, resulting in my using computer print-outs in my artwork in the form of collage, and also doing graphic work for a computer game for a local software company.

I found steady work in 1995 in the part-time post of an Audio-Visual Technician at Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, where I worked for twenty years until redundancy in 2015. Between 1997 and 2003 I also taught part-time Watercolour painting classes at Warrington Collegiate Institute and Eccles College. A couple of days a week I also have free to work on my own artwork at my studio which is now Bankley Studios in Manchester, where I have rented a space since 1997.