After many years in an aviation career, I retired and devoted myself to a couple of life-long creative pursuits: woodworking and watercolour painting.

I started learning about woodworking when my grandfather looked after my brother and myself while my mother was working. This was many years ago and he used to let us pound nails while he took large old houses, cut them in half and moved a part onto each of 2 lots and then finished them to sell. Since then, I have learned to overhaul my own family homes from those examples.

About twenty five years ago, I started to build fine furniture with my first self taught learning project of building a proper carpenter’s bench, complete with dovetailed drawers and hard maple top. This bench is still the central tool in my present shop.

I vaguely remember my first father working in an architectural office doing structural drafting and using watercolour to give the drawings life. Perhaps that may have been where the creative seeds came from. Watercolour is a hobby never to be mastered, only to get proficient at…someday!