Size: 76 × 102 cm


I remember leaving school in 1976 at the age of 16 and wanting to go into theatre which me and my friend Brian Kiff had the opportunity to become something that resembled part of the stage furniture but it would have been a start at least, but my father had other ideas. Becoming an actor was as good as an admission of being gay in my dad’s eyes so he said “ I’ve got you a job with your uncle Peter, you’re going to be a joiner”.

So I left Greenwood Academy on the Friday and was on a building site in Glasgow on the Monday and what a wake up call that was.
Spending time with a bunch of hairy arsed blokes who trailed their knuckles on the ground when they walked and ate road kill sandwiches for lunch was a wonderful introduction into adult life.

The one thing that broke the tedium of those days were times that I would have to get up before the crack of dawn on a late autumn or winters day and would have to walk to whatever building site I happened to be working on and sometimes the light on those mornings were amazing. I loved how when the sunlight broke through and would melt the frost on one side of the scene and revealed all the colour of the landscape but the other would be in deep shadow and still covered in white frost.

Its moments like this that I try to sometimes capture in a painting and this one called “Daybreak” is one such piece.


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