About

I can remember returning tired from playing on the beach during family summer holidays and crashing on the sofa before an evening meal. I was 9 years old and channel 4’s Tour de France coverage was worth the break from playing outside. What begun as occasional viewing turned into me wanting to get back from the beach in time to see the short highlights programme. I was captivated by the feats of endurance, watching the likes of Indurain claw back Ciapucchi in the mountains and then put time into him in the time trials. Indurain became my hero.

In 1994 I desperately wanted to see the Tour in person when it visited England and went up Ditcling Beacon but I had an exam the next morning. In 2001 I went to Dunkirk to watch the Tour prologue when British rider David Millar dropped his chain in sight of winning on the last corner and Christophe Moreau pulled on the maillot Jaune. I finally got to see my hero’s in person and decided that was it; I was getting a ‘road bike’ a red aluminium Ambrosio with 9 speed Campagnolo.

I only (rarely) race in time trials now and have completed in all distances from 10 miles up to 12 hours.

I am a UK based Artist who was born and grew up on the outskirts of south London.

I studied a foundation in art and design after leaving school but couldn’t find my niche. My passion for drawing has endured and I now combine it with my love of cycling and its culture, working primarily in pen and ink to create fine art. I am influenced by numerous artists and photographers (often from their lesser known works, or preparatory sketches). Reading the stories and history behind black and white images from cycling’s past sparked inspiration for me to start drawing with purpose again and led to the beginning of ‘fondista’.

I hope you enjoy my artwork.

CREATING

I usually work from original digital photographs, sketching out the whole image in pencil first to ensure that I get the key landmarks in the right place and get a feel for how the finished piece of work will look. I spend a large amount of time looking at the original image, re-evaluating and working out how I want to depict it, the density, pattern and length of lines I will use for each texture and area I’m creating. Each piece takes numerous hours over days, weeks or months to complete.

Have a look on Instagram for further images of my work in differing stages of completion.

A special thank you should go out to a friend and fellow Artist, Duncan, for kindly providing me with the initial support and impetus for Fondista. I also cannot forget to acknowledge all the support from my wife, Zsuzsikám.