Where do I think, I came from?
I was born in Liverpool UK in 1952 and come from a working class family. Liverpool at that time was a very large international sea port. I think my family was a normal kind of family of that time, and I think I had a normal kind of childhood.
My Family
My family is a strange mixture of different nationalities, my mother's mother was from Wales and her father from Ireland. The nearest 'job place to both these places was Liverpool so I suppose that was now they arrived there. My mother's family were laborers A very large warm caring family.
My father's family is also a little strange. My father's mother came from Ireland. His father is from Estonia or Latvia. The family seems to have left Estonia and immigrated to the USA. That family were cabinet makers by trade.
My father's father or my grandfather later became a shipwright and traveled the seas. He too ended up in Liverpool. It would be hard to find any English family with pure blood, even the Royal Family are Greeks and Germans.
My father was a self employed cabinet maker and at times General Builder. Later in life he took up wood craving and sculpture. As a child, and also being the eldest son I worked with my father at week-ends. It was expected that I too would become a cabinet maker.
Indentured Apprentice
In 1968 at the age of 16, my high school education ended, and instead of becoming a cabinet maker I became an "Indentured Apprentice". That term now sounds so Charles Dickenson.
I was an apprentice Instrument and Control Technician and started my working life in a tin refinery [Williams Harvey Co. Ltd] in Liverpool. It was a very hot, dirty and highly dangerous place. But they gave me very good pay and training, and they sent me to Technical College [ Halton College] to obtain the necessary qualifications of my trade.
Drop Out
By the age of 20, I decided that I couldn't see myself spending a lifetime in the heavy chemical industry, far too dangerous even if the pay was very high.
I became a "drop-out" like many other young people of that time, left Liverpool and headed to London. I never lived in Liverpool again.
I had no ambitions except that I wanted to experience something new.
During the last two years of my apprenticeship I had attended night school at the Liverpool Art School to learn painting. Same school that John Lennon attended although I never knew him. [Interesting note about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, they lived in the Japan Alps during the summers of 1979-81, not 100% sure about the dates so don't quote me]
High School
My high school education was based around science and I had never received any art teaching. I think my first step after the night school at the Liverpool Art School started when I became involved in a community printing project. I produced graphics and learnt "offset printing." This was also a very useful skill to learn because when I needed it I could find temp work, and the high light of that was a spell at the Young Vic Theater. I also did electrical work and sometimes painting and decorating.
Silk Painting
The next major step into art came when I learnt "silk painting" in France. A form of batik painting but instead of hot wax, a rubber based solution is used. Dates. This was all in the early 1970's. I took to silk painting and decided to do it full time, I also went on to learn batik mainly from Noel Dyrenforth who I consider to be the best batik artist.
Microscopist
At some time I worked for McCrone Research Association (London) [microscopist for asbestos analysis. A German Publishing Co. K G Saur on an new addition of the British Library Catalogue of Printed Books [layout artist] The project took 10 years. The London Clinic, a private hospital in London's Harley Street [electrician]. British Telecom [maintenance engineer].
Art Lessons
During the 1970's I took many art lessons at a local institute, The Camden Institute. I was making silk paintings, selling to friends. In 1970's I had my first exhibition in Yorkshire Moors. Great Place to start. Up to 1982 I held about 10 exhibitions.
Art College
In 1979 I decided to go to art college and took a course of Independent Study. I was 27 years old and a mature student, sounds like wine which has turned to vinegar. I took a two year course at the North East London (UK) Polytechnic [now called the University of East London]. I obtained a Diploma in Higher Education. I went back for a third year for a BA (Hons) but half way through I got bored with the whole college thing, and spending my time with 18 year olds. I left without completing the course. I had a very good professor, John Stevens, and an excellent tutor, Doreen Dyall RA. During the college years I was also a full member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists. Another highlight of the college years was that at the end of my first year I was invited to transfer to Goldsmiths College London but they wanted me to start again from the first year and I didn't have enough funds to do that.
Housing Co-op Movement
After the art school instead of my art career taking off it took a nose dive has I became more and more involved with the Housing Co-operative Movement, which in the end was about 15 years. I still painted but I would not call it full time nor did I make many exhibitions. One good highlight was, in 1989 I sold a painting to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, which was the first step to coming to Japan.
Japanese Wife
In 1993 I met my present Japanese wife. We soon decided on her advice that we would live in Japan and I would be a painter and she would be the business manager. The Japanese can be a very determined people.
For one year prior to leaving I worked very hard to produce six major works on Japanese Buddhism. We took these to Japan to begin our life, and in 1995 I received an important Japanese Art Award for those works, and along with another major works on Buddhism now hang in a Buddhism International Friendship Hall in central Tokyo.
Kick Start
Coming to live in Japan was a big kick start to my painting, because while living in London I could do many things, and also many distractions, in Japan I now had to paint to live and support myself and my partner. There were few choices. It's amazing what you can do when you need to. My painting career really started after our arrival in Japan.
So it took about 22 years in all. But I think everything I did before was leading up to this point. I have arrived at 51 years, and hopefully I will have some more years for painting.
Japan is one of the most expensive countries and prices here bear no relationship to the rest of the world. A beer costs US$10, a cup of coffee US$5. Professional artists have their prices set for them by one or two major art directories. It's calculated according to the size of a standard post card. In my case it's about 50,000 yen which is about US$500 for works on paper, and double this for canvas works. The price of a painting is then calculated according to this. I am now a full member of an important Japanese Painting Group. What follows is about my Japanese life. I hope you didn't become bored by all of this, but some people want it and some even thing it's important. What is important is just the painting. and someone said "just because no-one understands you, don't mean you are an artist."
