bio

I first became interested in illustration when at age 6 my parents bought me an illustrated encyclopedia of the animal kingdom. I started to copy the illustrations from the book and developed a lifelong passion for drawing, this progressed to my education when I studied at Harrow College of Art, and then received my MA in illustration from the Royal College of Art, where I studied under Quentin Blake.  Upon leaving college, my first big break was when Jeff Banks saw my work and asked me to make illustrated window displays for his Warehouse chain of shops. I was making large pieces at this time and began exhibiting widely, showing in galleries in Toronto, Los Angeles, London, New York and Tokyo. After making a series of 30ft posters for a Motor show in Brussels I realised my work was too large in scale to be of practical use in publishing. I started working on a smaller scale and began showing my portfolio to Magazines and Book Publishers.

Initially I found it difficult to find work and mostly made my living by working as a freelance set painter and prop builder for the English National Opera. I then went to work on a variety of animation projects for companies in L.A. and London. Working on the feature-length version of the children’s classic 'Heidi' and the BAFTA nominated 'Cramp Twins' for Cartoon Network, taught me the discipline of drawing to a high standard and to tight schedules -not just waiting for the muse.

I finally started to receive work from Magazines and Publishers when I joined the Canadian agency ‘Three in a Box’ whose faith enabled me to get a foot in the door. I have since illustrated for many publications around the world including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Vogue, Traveller magazine, GQ, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Toronto Post.

My most recent project has been illustrating 'Cooking without Recipes' by food writer Philip Dundas published by Springhill Press and available in bookshops now. I have a Christmas pop-up exhibition of illustrations from the book at a secret central London location during November and December.