My motivation for painting is simply to share with others a personal vision of some elusive moment in the wild and to communicate an understanding of man’s relationship with his environment.  I explore many media, watercolour, gouache, oils, screen-prints, graphite pencil, pen and ink and etchings.  Through the publishing company, Connewarran Press, I issue limited edition Prints and Reproductions.
I grew up on a sheep and cattle station in western Victoria, where I was surrounded by the wildlife that inspired me to paint.   I still live at Connewarran, where my family has been for several generations, but I travel extensively to other parts of the world to fulfill commissions and gather field information.
All children paint and draw – perhaps I never grew up!  While at Cambridge University I carved two sculptures from the walnut of an old broken gun-stock.  These were seen by a London Gallery, and my career as an artist began.  Under the guidance of Robert Gillmor and David Reid Henry, influential British wildlife artists, I began to concentrate more on painting.  This led to two solo exhibitions in London and a love affair with Africa, which I visited to work in the field for a year with Reid Henry.  It was there I learnt much about bush-craft, biology and tracking from helping in wildlife research. As well I developed my drawing and painting skills, while an introduction to falconry began a life-long involvement training, studying and rehabilitating birds of prey.

On my return to Australia I became (for seven years) the foundation President of the Society of Wildlife Artists of Australasia, and each year contributed to their exhibitions. During that period I spent much time on field work and environmental surveys throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea.  This culminated in the Collector’s Edition book “The Fairy-Wrens – a Monograph of the Maluridae” (recognised with a Whitley Award) and exhibitions of paintings at the Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

In the mid 1980’s I was invited by Ducks Unlimited Canada to paint the American Wood Duck for their portfolio “Waterfowl of North America.” I was the only artist from the southern hemisphere invited to participate and spent three months travelling in the US to assemble sketches for that and other commissions, the first of many trips to the US and Mexico.

During the early nineties I was invited by ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions) to be part of the Ecosystem Monitoring Project for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.  I spent several months working out of Mawson Base, setting up the research project and studying Adelie Penguins.  This extraordinary Antarctic experience inspired volumes of sketches and many paintings.

Returning to Africa, I guided a group of ornithologists on a tour of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, canoeing the Zambesi and returning to the Karoo in South Africa. Further time spent in Mexico and Thailand has furnished other experiences for paintings.

Some of my energies have been devoted to developing new revegetation techniques and serving as inaugural chairman of an award winning project which encompasses the wider community in all aspects of the management of their environment.  A central part of the programme involves the restoration and management of a biolink of 800,000 hectares of habitat to act as a 200 km connection between vestigial bushland in the Otway Forest and the Grampians Ranges in Victoria.

I have a second studio in the Grampians, where I develop sketches from my journeys into larger oil, gouache and water colour paintings. Some of these have been commissioned or are exhibited at one man shows, but there are many exciting ideas to come.