My earliest recollection of getting any recognition for my art work was in junior school. I remember a group of my classmates (and the teacher) watching in awe as I painted a T-rex fighting a stegosaur, with an erupting volcano as the backdrop. I was henceforth dubbed 'the boy who could paint dinosaurs' and my popularity in art classes was thereafter assured.

But my love of art was not confined to school. When my relations found out that I was artistically inclined, my Christmas presents included water colour painting sets, painting by numbers, colouring crayons, 'how to paint' books, oil paints and coloured plasticine etc.

I was probably a bit too young to appreciate the oils at that time. However, who's to say that my works were not good enough to hang in some gallery of primitive contemporary art. We shall never know.

The plasticine was well used. Yes, dinosaurs again! Though I seem to remember that my mother was less than enthusiastic about my creations. Plasticine bits in the carpet(especially when trodden on) are a pain to remove.

Still at junior school, I was entered for Brooke Bond art competitions and won some prizes.

My first secondary school was in Newcastle. I have fond memories of walking the mile or so into the centre to catch the bus. My walk took me through the old Kings College quadrangle and past the Museum of Antiquities. This was dedicated by and large to the Roman occupation of Britain. It contained many busts of gods and goddesses , altars and models in glass cases. So I guess this is where my love of the ancients and their religions comes from.

Like many young adults I enjoyed swimming and would at the weekends go to the baths in the city. It was then that I discovered other places to while away some of my time: The Laing Art Gallery, Hancock's Museum and The Museum of Engineering. These places were magic to me and fired my imagination. Unfortunately the latter two probably played their part in me leaning more towards science, and away from art, taking me down that route.

While at Wallsend Grammar school not only was I intensely interested in science, maths and art. I now had a language, Spanish, to call on my time.

All this was powerful stuff, but alas decisions on where my life would go eventually had to be made; the art and the Spanish were the unfortunate casualties

My time at Durham University was rewarding at some level. Looking back I think I deamed it more important to discover the world I lived in, the physical world, than pursue a life in the Arts. Moreover, I always liked to test myself, to find my own limits and boundaries. Physics was the obvious choice.

There followed a teaching career in science and maths spanning twenty five years. During this period I picked up on my art whenever I could. I still consider that it was an essential part of my survival kit, to maintain some balance; a distraction from the hurley burley of the classroom and school life. But even in that scenario I managed to fit in some small measure of my art. Year on year, I and a horde of young apprentices would paint the background scenery for drama productions.

That time was important in as much that by doing, I learned much of what I know today about the materials and the techniques used in fine art.

Retired from teaching now, I have refined these techniques to produce extremely fine detail in my paintings. But being interested in the wider world is essential to being a rounded individual. The internet has made it much easier to keep abreast of cutting edge science and allowed me to delve more deeply into the mystic past of our ancestors.

With a sea of philosophical ideas and fabulous images spinning in my head, I crave your audience to view my works, and invite you to dwell a little while on where they came from.

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