An autobiography THRough Influences

Biography

Always an artist inside my head I felt I should have a proper job too. After A levels I went to St. John's College in York and trained there as an Art teacher.

My first job in the art department of Bromley Grammar School for Boys brought me to London and from there, I moved to be Head of Art at a nearby boys secondary modern school. Certainly a shock to the system this place taught me to teach. Then on Head of Art for the next fifteen years at a mixed selective school which gradually became comprehensive. Latterly I became Head of the Creative Faculty as Head of Art.  I then took up the post of Art Advisor for Bromley LEA which also involved running whole day and evening courses for art teachers just as GCSEs came in to replace GCEs. After that I spent the next 16 years at Eltham College,  a boys public school with a mixed sixth form. As Director of Art there I lead a team which achieved excellent results. I took parties of students to trek in the Himalayas, Sikkim and Peru and Art students to Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Florence, Barcelona and Venice.

 I felt the need to make art myself but for most of my teaching career  was so busy being a teacher. Towards the last ten years in school I did manage a Saturday morning every other week in a studio where I refreshed my creative batteries and made work. On retiring from teaching I built a studio in the garden where I now paint, print and work with individual children and adults at their art.

 My hobbies are visiting art-galleries and museums, reading and listening to music. I love yoga, swimming and food. I am a grandfather of four, and father of three children, with one still at school. 

An offer to work near Paris and later in Cologne with the executives of an international reinsurance company at their weeklong conference gave me the chance to offer a creative element to the other skills they use in their work. The wellbeing of the staff in the world of commerce is now a matter which many such companies are addressing. I want to spend time with groups who work in the pressurised glass towers in our cities where revisiting the creative parts of the brain may help to restore a balance. I have the teaching experience in running events for adults and children, in groups large and small, for talented and talentless, for business people who are seeking to rediscover a dormant skill and reawaken their creativity.

My first job in the art department of Bromley Grammar School for Boys brought me to London and from there, teaching bright boys I moved to be Head of Art at a nearby boys secondary modern school. Certainly a shock to the system this place taught me to teach. Then to a mixed selective school which gradually became comprehensive for the next  fifteen years as Head of Art and latterly as Head of the Creative faculty.  I then became the Art Advisor for Bromley running whole day and evening courses for art teachers just as GCSEs came in to replace GCEs. After that I spent the next 16 years at Eltham College,  a boys public school with a mixed sixth form. As Director of Art there I lead a team which achieved excellent results. I took parties of students to trek in the Himalayas, Sikkim and Peru and Art students to Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Florence, Barcelona and Venice.

I felt the need to make art myself but for most of my teaching career  was so busy being a teacher. Towards the last ten years in school I did manage a Saturday morning every other week in a studio where I refreshed my creative batteries and made work. On retiring from teaching I built a studio in the garden where I now paint, print and work with individual children and adults at their art.

My hobbies are art-gallery and museum visiting, reading and listening to music. I love my yoga, swimming and food. I am a grandfather of four, father of three children, one still at school.