Christine studied fine art at Leeds and Lancaster and Tom at Byam Shaw and Chelsea School of Art. We became full time artists in 1996 although we have been involved in painting and printmaking for over 40 years. When we met we realised we had a shared passion for painting but had very different styles.

We wanted to try working together and started playing around with images and ideas and things slowly developed from there.

Our paintings are based imagery from our local landscape and travels and our extensive collection of textiles, ceramics and other bits and pieces we pick up along the way.

Recently Tom has also branched out on his own and returned to painting in a much more abstract style based on his love of music.

Over the years we have become widely known and have paintings in permanent collection at the House of Lords, are listed in both "Who's Who in Art" and "Artists in Britain since 1945", have done many commissions for public buildings as well as private buyers and exhibit and sell our work through art fairs worldwide and with galleries throughout the UK.

HOW WE WORK

"We work together on the same canvas. The paintings are built up in layers and are a representation of a real place or event, based on somewhere we've been or something that happened - travel features a lot as the colours and images are stronger and more memorable.

Over the last few years we’ve also developed an interest in painting landscapes of the UK, especially the Yorkshire Dales near where we live.

We'll decide what we want to paint in terms of where and what and discuss rough ideas and colours. Under painting has become more and more important to give depth and texture and this is primarily Tom's job.

He stretches and primes all our canvases and spends hours getting the surface and colours looking good.

Christine has no patience with this but is more interested in the overall composition. She works very fast and Tom's other job is to tell her when to leave the painting alone and give it room to breathe.

As a result, we don't often paint at the same time but will get together to decide how to finish the painting and discuss what's working and what isn't and make changes.

At this stage it's not unusual to change the composition and repaint whole areas again.

This amount of over painting and adjustment is the good thing about working together as it stops you from getting too stale or too precious about the work.

We always use acrylic paint for the same reason - it dries fast and allows a lot of manipulation and re-painting.

We consider a painting finished when the balance and composition feel right, the colour works and the result is fresh and full of energy.

We want the viewer to feel uplifted and for our enjoyment of the painting process to come through.

Tom has also recently returned to his first love, abstraction, and has taken his underpainting techniques much further to explore painting on paper with a much looser feel, a limited palette and a basis in his love of jazz.