Born in England, I came to Western Australia as a child in 1969. I lived in Perth from 1969 to 2003 when I moved with my wife and family to the small rural town of Mount Barker in Western Australia's beautiful Great Southern district.

This inspirational region is bordered by the Stirling and Porongurup Ranges, the coastal city of Albany and town of Denmark and is home to a world-renowned wine industry.

The Great Southern landscape offers everything from rugged mountains to tall karri forest, outback scrub, wheat and canola fields, wool and dairy farms, rivers and creeks, coastal cliffs and dunes, roaring seas and secluded bays.

Add to this a temperate climate with long, dry summers and cold, wet winters plus a wide array of historic buildings, old farm sheds, wildflowers and massive skies and you soon realise this region is a realist painter's dream!