Teenage angst creates some wonderful things I am sure. And some awful disasters. Sometimes both together. So it was with me. Opportunity often comes skulking around cloaked in disaster. Few people see it. If truth were told, they are blinded by the swirling mists of their own self pity. Oh I was no different, and it took a while for the mists to clear. But clear they did and eventually I remember thinking "Where do I go from here?".

No girlfriend, no job. Where? So I was thinking in overdrive, I mean, for like months. I eventually decided that whatever the odds or consequences, that I was either going to be a lead guitarist in a rock band, or a photographer. Everyone thought I was mad. I didn't care. So that was undoubtedly the first milestone in my life. Or the first cross-roads, perhaps.

Many more milestones occurred on this journey. In 1972 I realised that I had been born synchronised with the dawning of a new art form, which really had not been used creatively. I can still picture exactly where I was standing in my studio, in Buckfastleigh, when I discovered this. I can also still remember precisely where I was sat 12 years later, in my London apartment, when I realised I had created extraordinary work. Very few artists have any objective cognisance of their talent, early on.

I can also remember exactly where I was sat, yet another 12 years later in 1996, when I started to realise that I had achieved my artistic ambitions. As a young man, I wanted to be an artist of the calibre of Dali and later, Renoir. I originally dismissed Renoir as "chocolate box". I was quite wrong. Much later as I evolved creatively, I realised that there is a great deal to be said for keeping art beautiful and few have done that as well as Renoir. Few are capable of such beauty, nowadays.

My work was not influenced much by either of these artists. Certainly no more than they were influenced by other artists. But rather they inspired me. I simply saw them as men of quality. I saw something of myself in that. They had standards!! Something of an expletive these days. Their personalities, however, are foreign to me and I have no wish to emulate them. My creative approach is also very different.