At the age of five I attended pre-school where I met my first girlfriend, the relationship lasted less than ten minutes because she ‘went over the line’ in my colouring book. My passion and obsession with drawing and painting continued and remains with me to this day. From the age of eight my family took my brother and I on walking holidays climbing the mountains of the Lake District in all weathers. We ate cheese sandwiches at the top of places such as Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and The Old Man of Coniston in the sleet and rain. At times it felt like some kind of masochism but then the clouds would part and the sun would cast playful shadows over the rocks, crags and valleys in a heavenly display that would make it all worthwhile. That experience gifted me with a lifelong appreciation of painting the natural landscape.