Celebrate our 40th Anniversary in Business

New Business

In a few weeks time, I will be celebrating my 40th Anniversary in business as an artist. In 1984 I went self employed as an artist/illustrator using the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. It was an initiative that came out during Margaret Thatcher’s Government. To qualify you had to be unemployed and have a business account with £1,000. In return the government paid you £40 a week for the first year. I had finished working part time at the Hancock Museum  and managed to save the money to start my own business.

At the same time, I also started teaching graphic design part time at Consett Technical College. It was the beginning of a journey that I could never have imagined as I started off aged just 22.

To begin with, I took on any art related job that came my way. These ranged from architectural illustrations of Barrett Homes to album covers for heavy metal rock bands. The diversity of genres expanded my skill sets and the teaching also became more varied. Sometimes I was teaching illustration students at Newcastle College, other times it was giving lectures on subjects like Art Nouveau or War Utility. All the time though, I continued receiving watercolour commissions of cityscapes, landscapes, seascapes and portraits.

Paintings of Edinburgh

When recession came in 1991, I began to focus more on producing paintings for galleries. Initially most of the exhibitions were in the north east, but I soon found outlets in Edinburgh. This was through the Malcolm Innes Gallery and a publisher called Di Rollo. Di Rollo began to commission a Scottish Collection of Cityscapes of Edinburgh and the fishing villages of the East Neuk of Fife. As they became increasingly popular, I was then asked to create an Italian Collection which included scenes of Venice, San Gimignano, Florence and Siena. He also published two of my paintings of Newcastle with instant success.

Kidney Transplant

In 1996 an opportunity presented itself for Susan and I to open our own gallery in Eldon Garden Shopping Centre. This brought my work to a wider audience and gave me valuable retail experience and immediate feedback from our customers. Commissions came flooding in and we were able to travel more frequently to Italy for inspiration and reference. We had six successful years in Eldon Gardens before taking time out when Susan needed a kidney transplant.

In 2003 we opened a new Studio and Gallery in Ponteland village which was much closer to home. More commissions came in, including a range of Northumbrian Castles for Northern Rock.

In 2005 I had an exhibition in Marostica, a small town in the Veneto region of Italy. The exhibition featured many of the towns and cities in the region including Vicenza and Venice. I was able to give watercolour demonstrations to some of the locals. They appreciated my limited Italian, but I think my painting skills spoke more effectively.

Sultan’s 40th Anniversary

Overseas travel became more frequent in 2007 with new commissions for the government in Oman. Seeing this amazing country and meeting the people there was such a blessing. The paintings I produced on location in my sketchbook was also an inspiration to our hosts in Oman. They would import books to Oman and persuaded me to produce a reproduction sketchbook of my “en plein air” studies. One was given to HM Sultan Qaboos, another to HM Queen Elizabeth on her visit to Oman in 2010 for the Sultan’s 40th Anniversary.

I started receiving further commissions in Oman and began to work with the Bait Muzna Gallery who started to exhibit my paintings.

In 2007 we came to the decision to design a purpose built Studio and Gallery at our home in Ponteland. This would provide better light and space for me to work in and to exhibit my paintings. The following year the work was completed and this became the primary place for customers to view my paintings.

Commissions continued to come in, primarily via our website. We also started to run successful painting holidays in Italy through one of our clients in Umbria. We would hire Chiesa del Carmina, a 5 star luxury villa that was once a 13th century church. I would teach our guests how to paint and we would take them on visits to the nearby hilltop towns and villages. Many of the guests would return year after year, not just for the painting tuition but to sample the wonderful food and wine. COVID forced us to cancel the holiday in 2020 and we decided to call it a day.

Junction 42

One of the reasons was the part time work I started to do for the north east charity Junction 42. I began by helping ex-offenders in the community to find employment. Only a handful of the 100 plus men I worked with went pack to prison. Statistically, 50% of ex-offenders will go back to prison unless they find employment, so the work I did really bucked the trend.

Over the last couple of years, most of the work I’ve done for the charity has been in one of the local prison. I’ve been teaching art and delivering Alpha Courses where men can find out more about Christianity.

Earlier this year, Susan and I came to the decision to downsize and to find somewhere quieter. We still live in Ponteland and we now have a Studio and Gallery space in Dissington Hall. The commissions are still coming in. There are several currently in progress ranging from a street scene in Newcastle to a particular Northumbrian landscape that holds special memories for the client.

I’ve just completed another CD Cover and having just come back from Lake Como, I’m planning on painting some watercolours of this very picturesque lake. Susan and I will be planning to celebrate this 40th Anniversary before the year is out. Later in the year I’ll be 63 years old but I have no immediate plans to retire, either from painting or the charity work.