Longer version . . .

Originally found washed up on the shores of Northumberland, doodling in the sand with a damp twig, I was delighted when some kind-hearted locals took me in and offered me a pencil instead. I soon began a childhood of drawing – a practice which continues to bring me great joy. Not long after becoming a human child, I realised I had been followed, and was, at the ripe age of 4 years and 11 months, a brother! After the initial shock, I realised it was actually great to have a younger sister, and I began to entertain her with weird and wonderful stories performed with toy animals – something which gradually became rather obsessive, to the point where I was sitting for hours planning story-arcs and backgrounds for even the minor characters.

I was a reclusive child and often wrapped up in the imagination. At the age of 10, I was given a blackboard and some chalk, and I began to draw a long-running daily comic strip with some bizarre storylines (mostly concerning strange, metaphysical threats to existence!) Around the age of 12, I became fascinated with painting, at that time heavily inspired by the illustrator Rodney Matthews and later Dave Mckean, two artists whose work never fails to rekindle a creative spark in me. Although I got pretty good grades in exams, I found my schooldays paralysing and difficult and was relieved to leave that experience behind and become something of a grown-up. That said, I had a few good teachers, and at the age of 16 was encouraged to pursue a creative career after making a 12-minute stop motion animation, which later won an award for Best Young Filmmaker at a local film festival.

This film, with cardboard box sets, tiny ceramic figurines and plasticine fried eggs, gave me a boost of confidence and I enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art, where I spent the best part of four years in a dark room moving small things around in front of a camera before graduating with a first-class degree in Animation. I continued to paint as well, developing my technique and even selling a few works now and then. It was this combination of painting and animation which helped get me a stint working on the ground-breaking hand-painted feature film Loving Vincent, in a studio designed for perhaps the most ridiculous and beautiful animation technique imaginable – 12 frames-per-second and each frame an 30x18” oil painting!

I’ve since been exploring the meeting of fine art with moving image alongside freelance illustration and various other work pursuits. By recording the creation of several large fantastical paintings, I completed my most recent animated film, Wake, ‘a playful voyage through the vibrant dreamscapes of the imagination’, which has won a few awards at festivals and has also found life as a music video for jazz singer Sezin Angelova.

I’m also finishing editing a documentary about renowned sculptor Keith Mellard, for which I am creating short animated sequences. Other recent work has included promo videos for literary foundation Trafika Europe, debut album artwork for the singer/songwriter Possimiste, a music video for neuro-funk artist Kemal, flyer designs for alternative walking tour London Wanders, book covers for a couple upcoming writers, and a bunch of commissioned artworks.

Now firmly lodged into the 21st-century, I find one of the best antidotes to the worldly confusion and anxiety is in the creative act, be it drawing, painting, making music, singing, dancing, knitting, sculpting, writing, inventing new ways of asking ‘Who are you?’, or simply sitting by the sea doodling in the sand with a damp twig. We are each born of a creative impulse, and if we can embody something of that original creativity in our daily life, I think we have a pretty decent anchor in wellbeing. For me, art has always been as much a therapeutic process as a means of expression and continues to be an invaluable method of self-discovery. The creative act is a kind of excavation. Something wants to be seen, to be heard, to be known!

I’m now excited for new ways to put my skills to a good service and am on the hunt for fresh opportunities to further excavate and share my artwork. So don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have an idea to discuss, want to work together, or have a particular commission in mind. I look forward to hearing from you!