Bio

I grew up in London in East Walthamstow where the River Lea’s polychrome rain-bowed waters flowed through the Hackney Marshes. I watched the fog rise like a fluid up Echo Alley. During the Blitz I was a Comanche Commando fighting battles in bombed out houses, collected shrapnel. The war was a formative experience.

In December 1950 aged 16 I left Sir George Monoux Grammar School I went to work in the City. I cycled to work, changed into city togs, making sure my umbrella was perfectly rolled and studied Insurance. In the evenings I discovered Shakespeare at the Old Vic I developed a taste for cappuccino’s, was introduced to films with sub-titles and Jived at Jazz Clubs.

I was called up for National Service in the R.A.F. in 1952; volunteering to go abroad and was posted to Cambridge where I took Drawing classes at Cambridge School of Art. In 1954 I was accepted at The College of St. Mark St. John. “Marjons” on Kings Road Chelsea. I moved into my own room in the college right in the cultural heart of 50’s London.

After Finals in 1956 I was chosen to be a member of a five man cultural delegation to the German Democratic Republic. We were treated like Royalty and toured all the great cultural centers of the GDR. The tour included a visit to Buchenwald Concentration Camp and ended with a few days in Berlin where I spent two days in the company of John Heartfield. The time with Heartfield changed my life influenced my thinking and encouraged my desire for freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A central theme of my Painting and Drawing has always been the human figure. I am particularly interested in the figure in movement. Photography, Marey and Muybridge have all strongly influenced my work. Foot ballers, Athletes, Cyclists, Hurdlers were a central theme.

In 1956 I married Univ. of London Graduate Betty Luland and took up my first teaching position. We lived in rented rooms, the art room at school was my studio. I was invited to teach in Epping Essex. We were offered the opportunity to live in Harlow New Town. Harlow was a satellite community of London a modern garden city in the making. Living in Harlow offered a healthy beautiful environment to raise a family. Harlow also offered cultural activities I found in Harlow a burgeoning group of creative intellectuals who responded to my art it was the ideal platform for a young artist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1965 organized the Visual Arts for the first Harlow Arts Festival. Ballet Drama Music Opera Visual Arts were represented in the festival. With the assistance of Denis Bowen, Sheldon Williams and Ken Coutts Smith I staged the biggest art exhibition ever staged outside London. I was to meet up with Ken Coutts Smith again in Halifax Nova Scotia.

By 1965 I had been exhibiting in London for seven years and had exhibitions in Spain, German Democratic Republic, Holland and Yugoslavia. In 1966 I took a leave from teaching to become a Research Assistant at Birkbeck College University of London investigating the Visual Perception of Meaning.

In 1967 Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia presented a solo exhibition of my work. It was given an enthusiastic response and I was offered several teaching positions at the University Level in the United States. The exhibition included a series of works using a compositional play on Comic formats and magazine layouts entitled Kockney Kutz. For the next forty years I have returned to this format in several major series.

I sailed to the USA on the Queen Elizabeth in 1968 visiting Andy Warhol at the Factory and experienced New York City socialized with artist friends before leaving to drive across the states to the Mid West. I was to teach at University of Wisconsin for two delightful years.

During those years I was experimenting in teaching and in my work. It was a period of tremendous change and freedom in the arts. But I always returned to Painting and Drawing. Continuing the series of Mixed Media works that I started in Harlow I called the new series Kali Komix, a satirical fictional vision of the United States, art discourse and my travels The Comic Strip seemed appropriate in the land of the Comic Book Heroes.

I returned to London in the spring of 1972 for a Solo Exhibition at the prestigious Institute of Contemporary Art, the I.C.A. Following the exhibition. I moved to Canada where I was invited to teach to teach at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. N.S.C.A.D. I agreed to take the appointment partly because as a child I had been an avid collector of Victorian stamps of Britain the Commonwealth and Empire my collection of Nova Scotian stamps were my favourites. NSCAD in Halifax Nova Scotia was an exciting school in the 70s It was a stimulating environment a cauldron of artist ferment.

Halifax is an important naval centre and had a enormous effect on the British Isles in two major World Wars. Convoys gathered in its great harbour to run the gauntlet of the North Atlantic Halifax has other memories the Halifax Explosion 1917 the worlds greatest man made explosion before Hiroshima. Fragments of history that would haunt me and led me to publish two photo-documentary books.

In Halifax I continued the series that had started in England as Kockney Kutz followed by Kali Komix The Nova Scotian works I entitled Kanadian Kapers 1972 -1986 In 1986 a selection of Kanadian Kapers toured Canadian galleries in the provinces. These works echo and sometimes introduce themes in my Paintings.

A great influence on my work and thinking has been the study of Atomic physics The influence of scientific endeavors mirrored in the arts. Quantum particles are echoed in the fragmentation of art processes. I explore space/time presenting, imagining possibilities.

In February 1976 I met photographer Cheryl Lean. We married and moved into a Century Farm House in the Annapolis Valley where we spent seven idyllic years.

In 1986 Alvin Balkind invited me to to be a participant at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Meeting Irene Whittome and Lorne Falk in Banff was life changing. This was a turning paint. While in Banff I was offered a teaching position at Concordia Univ in Montreal Concordia has a unique art department with an extremely open creative atmosphere. I was to teach at Concordia for the next 18 years In the summer of 1991 I returned to the Banff Center for the Arts as Summer Head of the Visual Arts programme.With the move to Montreal my work gained greater freedom I had the space to expand both in thought and in scale. I fell in love with the city its people and its brilliant Dance and Music scene. In Montreal I met Tom Hopkins, Andrew Lui, Leo and Charlotte Rosshandler; we became close friends I began to travel more. I was invited to exhibit work in galleries across Canada and in the United States.

In 2003 I moved to live in Prince Edward County Ontario.. No longer teaching I could devote all my time to my work, to my garden and to the kitchen, three activities of a balanced life. From 2005 -2007 I had had health issues for the first time in my life having six surgeries in 20 months was either on crutches or in a wheelchair. Despite these difficulties I continued to paint and to exhibit. As much as I wanted to forget these months the experience inspired a series of drawings entitled Wheelchair.

Now I’m returned to health I’m back on my bicycle I cross country ski from my studio swim, hike and dance; life is good.