I have loved drawing and painting since I was a child. For over thirty years since I completed my Fine Art Degree, I maintained interest by painting in myspare time. Since 2014, (when I was given early retirement), I have been so fortunate to be able to devote far more time to my artistic efforts. I find inspiration in visiting galleries and looking at the work of others, but most of all in the beauty of the natural world. My subject matter is quite varied, including still-life, landscape and figure compositions. However, during the last couple of years, I have been working on paintings of the built environment, attempting to represent the everyday with a combination of detail and perhaps a suggestion of abstraction. My aim is to celebrate the side streets and local spaces, hoping to draw attention to the beauty of the familiar through colour, light and pattern. Recent works show the streets and corners, shopfronts and pavements, that we pass every day. It may be the shadows created by the low winter sun or the reflections in shop windows that catch my attention and makes me want to depict these familiar places in paint.