I always wanted to be a painter, but was sidetracked for seven years into being a restorer of painted and gilded wood, followed by a career in marketing and then, starting in 1999, I spent several years setting up and running a youth and community centre in west London. Although I never stopped drawing and painting in watercolour when on holiday, it is only in the last 3 years that I have returned to my first love, oil painting, taking delight in the texture of brushstrokes on canvas.