My main hobbies are woodworking and painting.
Born in Northern Ireland, my passion for woodworking began at a very early age, attending woodworking class at the local technical school on Tuesday afternoons, from the age of seven. My teacher instilled in me, the satisfaction of creating something useful, but not always beautiful, from wood. This was further developed during many hours spent in my father's workshop making simple items using basic hand tools, through my teens and into my early 20's.
My passion for art and painting also began at a very early age. I developed the ability to draw reasonably well as a young child and often sketched birds, animals and the objects and scenery that I saw in the countryside around my home. At 11 years old, I started taking art as a subject in intermediate (junior high) school and was encouraged to try painting in oils. Through my high school years I painted a number of paintings and exhibited them at the local "show" where I won awards in my category. I also did a few paintings by request for neighbours and some of my paintings hung proudly in our family home. A few of those came back into my possession and I have included photos of them on my PAINTINGS page.
Full time work, marriage and starting a family became my priorities and, as is often the case, my "hobbies" were set aside for a number of years. Primarily this was out of necessity to earn an income to support my family and then emigrating to Canada where I did not have a workshop or access to tools. For many years my woodworking projects were more like "construction"; fences, decks, basement framing, picnic tables, shelves, children's play furniture, mostly made from dimension lumber or plywood. Painting meant using a roller and a 2" brush for walls and trim in our various homes.
My career path took a number of different directions related to sales and engineering of machinery, especially pumps for the oil and gas industry and, during some 25 years, I spent quite a lot of time at work and related travel. As I began to think about future retirement I realized that I would need to have something challenging to keep me occupied so I built a woodworking shop in the basement of my house that would be comfortable and safe to work in, especially during the long Canadian winters. Over a period of about ten years I accumulated a wide range of power tools and hand tools to set up for building furniture. My various projects are featured on my WOODWORKING and BEDROOM SUITE pages.
I started painting again in 2008 when I took a job in Madrid, Spain, and again had no access to my woodworking shop or tools. During this time I visited a lot of museums and galleries and was inspired by the creativity of all the different styles, especially the Spanish artists whose names are given to the streets in the district I lived in. Upon returning to Canada, I started taking art classes to try to improve my painting and now I have two hobbies that I know will keep me very busy in retirement. My paintings are featured on my PAINTINGS page.
In 2017, after being retired for a few years, we decided to downsize from our house to an apartment so we could have more freedom to travel for extended periods. We purchased and renovated an apartment in a condominium complex that has many amenities including, most importantly, a woodworking shop for the residents. I moved my machine tools there so I can continue my woodworking hobby and share my knowledge and experience with others in the complex that have similar interests. We converted a bedroom in our apartment into a multi-purpose room which I use as my painting studio.
My passion for art and painting also began at a very early age. I developed the ability to draw reasonably well as a young child and often sketched birds, animals and the objects and scenery that I saw in the countryside around my home. At 11 years old, I started taking art as a subject in intermediate (junior high) school and was encouraged to try painting in oils. Through my high school years I painted a number of paintings and exhibited them at the local "show" where I won awards in my category. I also did a few paintings by request for neighbours and some of my paintings hung proudly in our family home. A few of those came back into my possession and I have included photos of them on my PAINTINGS page.
Full time work, marriage and starting a family became my priorities and, as is often the case, my "hobbies" were set aside for a number of years. Primarily this was out of necessity to earn an income to support my family and then emigrating to Canada where I did not have a workshop or access to tools. For many years my woodworking projects were more like "construction"; fences, decks, basement framing, picnic tables, shelves, children's play furniture, mostly made from dimension lumber or plywood. Painting meant using a roller and a 2" brush for walls and trim in our various homes.
My career path took a number of different directions related to sales and engineering of machinery, especially pumps for the oil and gas industry and, during some 25 years, I spent quite a lot of time at work and related travel. As I began to think about future retirement I realized that I would need to have something challenging to keep me occupied so I built a woodworking shop in the basement of my house that would be comfortable and safe to work in, especially during the long Canadian winters. Over a period of about ten years I accumulated a wide range of power tools and hand tools to set up for building furniture. My various projects are featured on my WOODWORKING and BEDROOM SUITE pages.
I started painting again in 2008 when I took a job in Madrid, Spain, and again had no access to my woodworking shop or tools. During this time I visited a lot of museums and galleries and was inspired by the creativity of all the different styles, especially the Spanish artists whose names are given to the streets in the district I lived in. Upon returning to Canada, I started taking art classes to try to improve my painting and now I have two hobbies that I know will keep me very busy in retirement. My paintings are featured on my PAINTINGS page.
In 2017, after being retired for a few years, we decided to downsize from our house to an apartment so we could have more freedom to travel for extended periods. We purchased and renovated an apartment in a condominium complex that has many amenities including, most importantly, a woodworking shop for the residents. I moved my machine tools there so I can continue my woodworking hobby and share my knowledge and experience with others in the complex that have similar interests. We converted a bedroom in our apartment into a multi-purpose room which I use as my painting studio.