Life started at Cunnamulla‚ Queensland and I grew up a farmer‚ this was home and my life for 40 years‚ with periods of absence for schooling‚ work‚ life etc. Artistically - I won a couple of minor art awards at about age 12‚ but a boy’s life took over and painting was relegated to the back of my mind. I have variously been a jackeroo‚ barman‚ roustabout‚ labourer‚ ringer‚ salesman‚ footballer‚ station manager‚ pastoralist‚ classer‚ studmaster‚ activist‚ pilot‚ consultant‚ business manager‚ trainer‚ mentor‚ share trader‚ CEO‚ Antarctic expedition leader. There was no plan it just happened that wayI was stimulated by Picasso from a very early age. I have always seen art as a medium for expressing of ideas and gaining insight into the world. On a very hot January Sunday 10 years ago I decided to test these thoughts‚ sketches and artistic ramblings and to see if there was something of substance. The first work was very amateurish but valid enough to encourage me to do some more‚ the second work a landscape done with a palette knife‚ which I sold‚ by accident‚ the third work‚ a abstract windmill‚ which I again sold‚ convinced me I had something worth persisting with. The fourth work I put in the Central Australian Art Award and was runner up in the People’s Choice section in 2007. I was hooked and since then I have done many hundreds of works ranging from very large compelling complex abstracts‚ to pencil sketch’s and just about everything in between. I have no genre‚ no particular signature no limitations. In 2013 I lead the Australian Antarctic 2013 Casey expedition to the great southern continent and during that year did something that I had always believed. I feel sure there is an artist within everyone and I taught a group who had never done any artistic work previously to paint during the dark winter. That was deeply satisfying‚ in particular one individual who was a rare talent I encouraged to give up his career and go to art school to really develop his talent. Unless I am just experimenting with colour or a medium all the work has a meaning to me‚ I paint to express‚ as a means reasoning in an unreasonable world‚ the work comes from within. Whilst inspired by several artists I don’t particularly want to or do paint in any genre and it is the adventure of always trying something new and fresh that excites me as much as anything. If it doesn’t work I just paint over and try something else so I don’t expect to ever be fabulously technically proficient‚ but I always strive to make the work evocative and be adventurous. As much as anything I believe we are all innately artistic‚ it is the courage to do it that makes us artists. “I am always doing things I can't do‚ that's how I get to do them”. Picasso