"Fire Tender" Original painting

These two paintings are linked - can you see how??

I painted the little one first, and it was like re-inhabiting my childhood self, stepping through the portal of imagination, unlocked in the simple act of opening a book and turning the pages.

Rudyard Kipling was unquestionably a controversial figure, but there are few if any writers who more influenced my childhood imagination. Obviously as a small child I was impervious to notions of politics, race and imperialism; what I derived from his children’s stories was a fascination for nature and wildlife, a sense of the dark/destructive side to human nature, and a deep longing to belong to a wolf pack… I believe my love of “Just So Stories” may well have fed my early intrigue in surrealism.