Early Work • Miniatures • Landscapes
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As a schoolboy growing up in the 1950/60’s, my ambition had been to become a fighter pilot. On leaving school I declined my father’s suggestion of a career in the bank in the hope that something else would turn up. It did. A neighbour, Bob Marsh, Head of the Project Office at Hawker Siddeley, invited me to join the company. This was the firm that made the Harrier Jump Jet – the world’s first vertical take-off aircraft. You could say I jumped at the opportunity! At first I was stationed at Dunsfold Aerodrome where I soon familiarised myself with cockpit layouts and aircraft instrumentation. Having the chance to take the controls of a twin-seater Hawker Hunter one afternoon – it was being towed down the runway to the Engine Testing Bay – whet my appetite for my first flight. But alas, my flying career never got off the ground. I failed a medical (fear of heights) and was posted to the Drawing Office at Kingston. Here I learnt draughtsmanship and the discipline of line ___ |
DRAWING OFFICE INSIGNIAThe pencil sharpener denotes |
During tea breaks I would work on my own ideas. Everyone had something on the go. These private jobs were called ‘Homers’.
HOMERS
FANTASTIC SPRING COIL ROCKET
THINGY ON A LIGHT BLUE
BACKGROUND
1971
HAWKER PUP
Low level, ground attack
office dog
1972
CONVERSATION OUTSIDE FACTORY
INTERRUPTED BY AIR RAID
(Careless Talk Costs Lives)
1971
TREEHOGS
1970
RIOT MUG
and Rebellious Toothbrush Set
1971 / 2009
TUBE TRAINS
1971
THE RIOT
1971
(Presented as a poster for a proposed retrospective in 2009)
THE RIOT
Jigsaw
1971
THE SOD
Botanical Study
1972
As the ‘Homers’ developed, an inevitable conflict of interests arose, and after several years in the drawing office, it seemed appropriate to leave.
