On leaving Canterbury College of Art where I obtained a National Diploma in Design I followed a career in advertising, after which I turned to painting and found that acrylic paint was the ideal medium for achieving the textures and effects that I wished to create. I was accepted as a member of The National Acrylic Painters Association in 1989 and have exhibited widely with NAPA . Having always been fascinated by the Natural World I have collected over the years pebbles, fragments of rock, minerals, fossils, pieces of bark and recently fossilized wood. The shapes, colours and designs I find in these objects have inspired my semi-abstract paintings. The pebbles and rocks create their own worlds, the bark pieces suggest a threat to their woodland or forest environment and the fossilized wood fragments reveal a world within. As an artist I hope that my paintings encourage a new way of viewing and appreciating the design of even the smallest parts of our environment .