'Better late than never' springs to mind! I guess this all started at least 2 generations ago actually. My Grandfather on my Dads side was a real craftsman and artist. He made most of the furniture in his home and he made my Brother and I a fantastic playground for our toy cars. He made the road way and everything that was attached to it in the image below. We were beside ourselves that Christmas.

He was also a fantastic portrait and landscape artist. I have fond memories of seeing a half finished oil painting of a weir in a beautiful piece he had on an easel. My Brother and I each have an oil portrait he did from photos of us as children and my Father has another brilliant piece of a horses head that he did. I'm advised that he was commissioned to do a couple of large pieces for a bank in London as well but, sadly, I've never seen them and have no idea where they are now.

A survivor of WWII, a long term heavy smoker and a lifetime of toil, largely as a Stevedore working on the Thames, saw my poor old Grandad retire at 65 and depart the wheel at 65 and a half! The quality time we had hoped he would be able to fill with his art was cruelly denied him. Fortunately, his gift passed to his only son - my Dad. Unfortunately, my Father never really found the inspiration to realise his full artistic ability. The craftsman in him has produced many wonderful things in his sheds. Indeed, his sheds are wonderful things, all of which were hand built by him. Dad did produce a couple of sculptures. He made a dolphin which was brilliant (but got broken) and he carved a fish from pieces of wood that he first had to laminate. I still have the fish on my window sill - I'll post pictures of this and my Grandad's paintings when I've taken them!

And so to the next generation! My younger Brother, Phil, and I both have artistic tendencies. I used to do a lot of drawing as a lad but it was copying things rather than being able to create in my mind and transfer that imagination to paper. Phil realised his artistic ability when he studied to become a hairdresser. Some of his designs during that course were fantastic but, following graduation, his path has not been very artistically driven. My path has been different.

We both joined the Army at similar times and left 5 years later within a month of each other. Phil pushed to get a new qualification, I got hitched to a budding young accountant to be and spent the following 10 years more in support of her career rather than pursuing my own. She was great though because, while I supported her, she actively supported my attempt to become an artist. Indeed, to that end, she bought me my first set of carving chisels for Christmas of 1993.

I'd been collecting bits of timber for a few years and I had this piece of Yew in the back garden, seasoned and ready to carve.

I was super excited at getting my new chisels so I grabbed this bit from the garden and got to work before my Christmas breakfast had had time to go down! Unlike my inability to transfer my ideas onto paper (in 2D) I seem to be quite capable of doing so in 3D. It took me no time at all to see the subject in this piece of wood.

I didn't make life easy for myself because it's considerably more difficult to carve from a log. Usually you would have a piece that's been squared off so that you can draw the profile on one side and the front or rear view on the adjacent surface. That way you can at least band saw out the rough and have the essential shape before you start carving.

Still, I did a 'bodge it and leg it' job being that I was incredibly impatient to see my little piece of tree take shape. If I remember correctly, I drew the profile and carved across the log till I had a flat enough surface to draw the front view. The rest, as they say, is history. I did manage to put a chisel into my hand before the New Year ... Doh! I eventually got this piece finished by February 1994.

Thus, Diver was born and so was this Sculptor. I've managed to keep this piece whole and in good condition for 22 years. It now looks like I have a buyer for it so I've mounted it onto a piece of Oak to improve it's stability and I may be saying farewell to it this weekend.

I'll reveal a little more of my artistic journey next time.