Bio:

Born in London in 1963, I spent a lot of my childhood moving around the world, following my fathers work in the Aviation business. finishing school in Bedfordshire in 1979, and because Art and design had always been my forte for as long as I can remember, I started my Diploma in Graphic Design further down south at the Bournemouth College of Art & Design that very same year. The years seemed to fly by and upon receiving my Diploma in 1983, and after a lot of serious thinking, I finally decided not to go ahead with the move to London in pursuit of work in the graphics industry (not that I have anything against London, it was just too expensive at the time).

Instead I started working for my father at Bournemouth Airport, entering into a completely different world of ‘executive jet charter and maintenance', following along in my fathers footsteps. I spent over six years working, studying and gaining licence coverage to become an inspector, and finally managing our engineering team. In 1989 I started working for Channel Express, a Bournemouth based company, operating eight Handley Page Herald aircraft, flying routes to the Channel Islands and Eastern Europe, spending two years accompanying them as a flying technician.

In March 1991 I was very fortunate to acquire a company pilot sponsorship and before I knew it was off to take my exams, and start my flying training in the USA, initially flying a Lockheed Electra aeroplane and finally the Airbus A300 type aircraft to all kinds of destinations around the world, working with the company for over ten years, and gaining more than 4000 hours flying experience. Unfortunately in December 2000 my life took a very different turn. I had made my final commercial flight from Dubai to London via Cyprus on the 12th of December 2000, not at all knowing that it was going to be my very last. I resigned from Channel Express in March 2001, an extremely sad day, but it was something that I had to do.

A change of life and a return to Illustration.

So for a complete change of life for both my children and I, in the month of August 2001 we set sail from Southern England, bound for Valencia Spain, certainly the biggest and probably the best move that I have ever made in my entire life, seven years have passed by, we have settled in nicely, we obviously all speak Spanish and also play a big part within our local Spanish community.

Never out of practice

Obviously being an Artist, I have never stopped painting and drawing, even whilst a pilot, I was known amongst my colleagues as ‘The Flying Picasso’, always being commissioned for different kinds of illustration and painting work. I have also been teaching art classes at the local Spanish school and two years ago built my own design studio, my ‘Illustrators Place’.

Then it suddenly came to me.

I like many other people, had always wanted to write a children’s book, and what better time than now, with lots of experience, I had after all been reading to my young children for many years, although on many occasions I did find myself wanting to enhance and add spark to some of the illustrations. So in the winter months of 2007, I sat down and wrote my first children’s book ‘The Great World Adventures of Chubbly the Aviator’ and of course, who better to illustrate it than myself. I am currently writing and illustrating more books and have an active interest in turning ‘Chubbly the Aviator’ into a children’s TV programme.


Writer/Illustrator
Associate
Member since 2009
Region: Spain

Contact Information

Current Location:   Valencia
Website:  http://www.Illustratorsplace.com

Published In Children's Market: No