I started painting horses whilst living in Hexham, Northumberland where I had my own horse. A beautiful chestnut three-quarter thoroughbred that inspired many paintings. I started painting the horse at Byam Shaw School of Art and this quickly led to more abstract paintings pushing the boundaries and getting away from the traditional image of the horse. Although I had spent hours studying the masters like Stubbs, Gericault and Delacroix I pushed the image to focus on the face markings and the horse back. This has all given me a great understanding of how to create something fresh that still resembles and respects the gratefulness of the horse as well as the spirit.