About Me
ARTWORK
My style is to realistically depict the marine life of New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific, in dynamic poses as opposed to what I call 'frying pan' shots, where the subject is just 'side on'.
I work in graphite pencil from 'B' to '9B' which is dark and dramatic and works well in any space. Maybe I'll pick up a coloured pencil one day...
BIOGRAPHY
Born and bred in Tauranga, New Zealand, my wife Paulene and I have four teen/adult children. A keen fisho, diver and amateur photographer I spent a lot of time on the water. I was a Quantity Surveyor for almost 30 years until eleven years ago, when I was diagnosed with a rare auto immune disease which forced me to give up work (which was great to get out of the building industry but not the way I planned it). So a couple of years ago I picked up a pencil and started scribbling which I hadn’t done for years. A side effect of the disease was that I had developed ‘the shakes’ which was interesting when drawing but turned out to be quite handy with some techniques and details. Because I couldn’t fish as much as I used to I started drawing them instead, and so Fish Art was born.
FISHY TALES
By no means an expert fisherman, I have managed to nail a couple of nice fish over the years including a couple of striped marlin, tagged a 200kg Blue Marlin a couple of seasons back with my son on the rod (his first time gamefishing), largest kingfish in the NZ Nationals 36kg, a Tongan record 49kg Yellowfin Tuna, NZ record Albacore 11.5kg, a 32lb Snapper on 6kg, and a 30kg+ Kingfish on spear... but I still get a kick out of catching piper off the wharf.
My brothers and I with a nice haul of bugs