I was introduced to painting as a boy by my uncle, Armand Hopa, who is a member of the Ostend group of artists based in Marienkerke in Belgium. His home was covered with his paintings and those of the artists he admired, and he showed me how he worked. The first exhibition I saw was the Van Gogh exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in (I think) 1967. I then taught myself to paint and gained an A-level in Art before going to university to read Economics. I spent most of my working life as an ad man and a brand consultant until taking up painting full time in October 2009.