The light is brighter in California. Especially in towns and cities that flank the coast. Refracted light from the ocean applies a sheen and amplifies everything you see, making grass look greener and the sky appear bluer.

Even on the most glorious London days, the light is still muddier than it is on the West Coast. So when you visit California, it is like having cataracts removed, and all of a sudden you see the world through sun-tinted glasses.

If ever you wanted a contrast to California, then Croydon is a great place to start. With its brutalist sixties neutral gray concrete high-rise buildings offset by neutral gray roads and juxtaposed with neutral gray trees, Croydon cultivated notoriety for being an aesthetic dump. And it’s made even more bleak on dreary, drizzly, neutral gray days. Yet remarkably, I’ve been drawn to the town for pivotal moments in my life, not least my birth in Croydon’s Mayday Hospital. And after completing a Foundation in art and design at The Kent Institute in Maidstone, Croydon College is where I returned for my Batchelor of Arts in graphic design. Croydon was probably the last place on earth I wanted to spend three years of my life, but it made complete sense. It was less than an hour’s drive from my home in Tunbridge Wells, had easy access to one of the great capitals of creativity that is London, and the school was fast gaining a formidable reputation for gearing students up for the real world. In 1995 I graduated from Croydon College with a Degree certificate, a strong portfolio of well composed graphic design and an appreciation of ‘neutral gray’, then embarked on a 25 year career in advertising.

Advertising and art are inextricably related. Without art, there would be no advertising. Art forms are used like ingredients to stimulate our desire to buy stuff or follow a belief. Be it writing, film making, sound design, or typography and graphics, advertising draws from the riches of art to create messages that appeal to different audiences. As I grew in my career, I learned how to carefully select my ingredients to make award-winning work in a variety of media and platforms. And being a creative director is as much about knowing which ingredients to leave out as it is what ingredients to include. In a world that is increasingly complicated, the ability to keep things simple is an art form in itself. 

In 2019, we relocated from London to Los Gatos, California which had a profound effect on the way I observe and appreciate the world. Even a drive from Los Gatos to neighboring Campbell felt exciting, with sun spilling through elegantly tall palm trees, and the mauve, teal and gold mountains glistening in the distance. Overwhelmed with all this natural (as well as artificial) beauty, I feverishly began painting virtually everything I laid eyes on. And by 2021, I had sold enough paintings to provide me with the impetus to quit advertising and become a full time artist.

In making my work, I buy only best materials. And I love Micheal Harding hand made oil paints. They’re justifiably the most expensive paints on the market and worth every single penny. I’ve invested in hundreds of these vibrant colors that I believe enhance the aesthetic of every painting I make. Unlike standard oil paint, the Micheal Harding oils come to life in various lighting conditions throughout the day, meaning you view and appreciate the paintings differently every time you see them. Clients of mine have often commented how the paintings speak to them by sheer virtue of the fact that they are tonally different under ambient natural day light, or gallery spot lights in the evening. I love hearing how people have a favorite time of the day to sit and enjoy their painting, or have it greet them as they open their front door.

Like my paints, I also invest in the best canvases, wood panels, paper and other materials I can lay my hands on. I buy my hand-stretched canvases from Masterpiece Artist Canvas, a smallish company based in San Diego. I would rather painfully wait a few months for their bespoke, beautiful canvases than forego quality. There’s just something about the grain of the fabric which feels so good when brushing in the layers of oil and elevates the experience of mark-making. Masterpiece also have a true square edge to their canvases versus the rounded edge of a cheaper, less superior surface. On my large format paintings, I like to hang the work without a frame as the canvas itself, with its one and a half inch thick body, looks elegant and sculptural without superfluous gilding - inviting the viewer to not just look at the work, but experience it.