I've had to do all kinds of jobs to pay the rent. I've even worked in a Cornish tin mine.

When I look at some of my old work, the pieces I find most interesting are the ones with people in them.

I felt the need to get back to painting and I thought the best way was to start drawing, so I enrolled in a life drawing class. I soon discovered that people made very interesting subjects and I am still surprised that I had never discovered it before.

I tried to learn the violin for a while.

I had been living with dialysis for three years or so, and the new kidney felt like a reprieve, a new gift of life. I felt alive again and I guess that has had an effect on my use of colour.

I never know what it's going to look like. Wouldn't be much point in painting if I already knew the outcome. I have a subject in front of me and I start flooding colour and making marks, I don't know, it's improvisation isn't it?

I have never subscribed to the Dirty Pallet school of painting.