British sculptor, painter, and illustrator. Began as commercial illustrator at DC Thomson in 1939 where he was introduced to Modern European art like Cezanne and Monet. After WWII, enrolled at The Slade School of Fine Art in London in painting department before switching to the sculpture department, finding the neo-Romanticism approach expounded by his painting tutors to not be creative. From Eduardo Paolozzi, he learned the direct, modernist approach to sculpture and modelled in cement or wet plaster around an armature. Some of his works were influenced by Giacometti’s prewar surrealist sculptures. Influenced by the “primitives”: Italian 14th and 15th century muralists and altar panelists and Greek pre-classical works. Also influenced by ethnographic collections: Venus of Willendorf, bronze heads, totems and standing figures.