An engineer turned artist, Stuart considers himself fortunate enough to be able to combine his love of painting with a lifelong enthusiasm for motorsport and all forms of transport.
He was born in London but has spent most of his life in the Bristol area of the UK. His earliest memories are of the London Midland main railway line, which passed close to his London home, and of the last days of the London trams. After moving to Bristol he could watch aircraft preparing to land at the nearby Filton base of the then Bristol Aeroplane Company and he spent many happy hours watching Western Region trains in the West Country.
The 1954 British Grand Prix, seen on very grainy black and white television, was when he became hooked on motor racing for life; the margins of his school and college notebooks were filled with designs for racing cars but unfortunately none came to fruition!
An aircraft engineering apprenticeship led to an engineering degree and work on Concorde design. Gradually he began to spend more of his spare time on his other interests of drawing and painting. A few watercolours were sold to friends and he progressed from local evening classes to a distance-learning course with the Open College of Art. When he had the opportunity to take early retirement he took it with open arms so as to paint full time.
Watercolours gave way to acrylics and then to oils. Stuart now paints exclusively in oils as he finds the medium much more versatile and suited to the detail that the subject matter requires, although he often uses acrylic underpainting to speed drying in the initial phases.
