I am a traditionalist at heart. I had lived in York all my life up until I moved away down south to University, it was a great time. However, two years into my studies I began making pastel drawings of the historic buildings down there and from home seemingly out of the blue. I think it was a reaction to the modern architecture that I was now more exposed to; what we are building nowadays in England is ugly, characterless and inhuman. Soulless new builds and battery farm like tower blocks are everywhere now. We used to have an architectural tradition. Many old buildings display master craftsmanship, they are beautiful and have a unique character. But we have abandoned this tradition in favour of ‘minimalist’ blocks of glass ,steel, and concrete which you could see in any other city in the world. No detail, beauty or artistry. But, if you turn your head you can still see the old England that our ancestors left us.

Before I started this vein of work, I mainly used media like brush pens, fine liners, watercolours, and acrylics. I used to cover a very broad subject matter, like maritime paintings, fantasy drawings, portraits, comics, sci fi digital art, large acrylic cityscapes, and industrial landscapes. Now my work is much more focused on drawing areas/ buildings with history and personality, using soft pastels. This new direction has pushed me to learn more about our local and national heritage, which in turn feeds back into my drawings and helps me choose my subject matter.