My background

I am an English artist, married to a Danish journalist and have lived in Denmark since 1986. 
I drew and painted constantly as a child and took for granted that I'd follow an artistic career.
As a child, I was drawing and painting constantly; taking for granted that I'd follow an artistic career. An A-level Art GCE exam was passed with a top grade at sixteen. 

So I began five years of Art education. Two happy years of drawing, painting and printing were spent at Twickenham Technical College on  an Art Foundation Course. Three years followed at Hornsey College of Art specializing in graphic design.


My first employment after leaving college was for Profile Publications in Windsor, Berkshire.
  Four, highly specialized military magazines were produced every month by this company highlighting locomotives,  aircraft, battleships and tanks. Beautiful, airbrushed artwork filled the pages of these magazines. Military experts would come into the offices to check that every nut and bolt portrayed was correct in these illustrations. I had enormous respect for the artists working there; they were really so clever. 

However, I could never get excited about the subject matter and after a year I found work in London on SHE magazine.


At that time, the National Magazine Company produced some of the best selling women magazines in Britain -  'SHE' and 'Country Living' and 'Women and Home'. 

'Harpers Bazaar' - was run by debutants. Others such as 'Biker' magazine, was produced by burly bikers. The building was always buzzing with excitement.

'SHE' was run like a big family in those days. Michael Griffiths , Art editor and Founder of the magazine, was married to Pamela Carmichael, the Editorial Editor. Two wonderful, larger than life characters encouraged me, and the other young staff members, to put our abilities to the test in many areas. 

Not only did I work on the layout and design of the magazine, but I also illustrated, wrote the occasional article, took photographs - and employed the best photographers London had to offer in those days, when articles called for special photographs.

Part of my work description became Photographic Editor. 

'SHE' had articles on every subject under the sun. These had to be illustrated. This often involved combing the cabinets of London's photographic libraries. 

There were about four or five libraries, housing many thousands of photographs sent in by photographers from all over the world. When I look back it surprises me how quickly I got to know the contents of these libraries and the people working in them. 


One of the best tasks I had was to fill the 'Christmas presents' pages in the November issue of 'SHE'.


I would go to all my favourite shops and collect things I thought would be suitable for men, women and children for Christmas gifts. The shops welcomed the advertising SHE gave them and I was free to take everything back to the office to be photographed for the magazine. When the pages were complete everything was shared out among the staff. It was fun.


Eventually, I moved on to IPC, another magazine house, situated on the south bank at Blackfriars, across from St. Paul's Cathedral. 

This company was unionized and job descriptions weren't as flexible as they had been with The National Magazine Company. I had to work with design and layout. I became an art editor here and stayed for eight years. 

During my time at IPC I began working freelance for Camden Graphics in Islington. A card company, which produced a series of cards I made for them with cat motifs. These cards which I so enjoyed painting, sold around the world for over 30 years. I also designed a few cards for The National Trust.

I have a great love for animals. After moving to Denmark to marry -  a place where I couldn't understand a word of danish for a long time - I had the time and opportunity to paint them; particularly portraits of horses. They are wonderful animals and I'll never tire of them as subjects for my paintings. 

Over the years, I've been commissioned to paint many horses, dogs and cats. I've also painted portraits of people with or without their pets. 

Teaching Art at evening school has been a large part of my life in Denmark and it's been a great pleasure to help people to improve their artistic skills. 

I hope you enjoy looking at some of the work I have done over the years. For the amateur artists amongst you, I hope you find inspiration.