1. My Inspirations.

The first and not so obvious influences were Chris Foss, Peter Elson, Tim White, Jim Burns, Fred Gambino, Angus McKie, Tony Roberts & Chris Moore.

They were all featured (except for Moore) in a series of books call the Terran Trade Authority Handbooks.

2. If you know my work, then you know it's a no brainer that this particular book was my biggest influence of the series!

#Spacewreck #scifiart

@fred_gambino being the artist in this book that influenced one of my paintings directly.

He is STILL producing incredible to this day. Thank you Fred!

..Damn it.. 'incredible WORK to this day..

4. I've been obsessed with old forgotten places and spaceships my entire life. It's the adventures we'll never know about, the lives that went before that captures my imagination.

Final year portfolio in 93', Photoshop v2, StrataStudio Pro v1.5

5. My mates and I used to explore old abandoned factories. We found an old place, crawled in through a window and found all the usual stuff. Machinery smelling of oil, water dripping from the ceiling etc. We found an old car too, from the 20's, open top, white walls, pristine!

6. We always wondered who owned it and what their story was.

We also knew to not put a mark on it, place the cover back over it carefully and leave it be. It was special!

My whole life I've wondered about that car.

7. So combine that with Star Wars AND a love of matte painting and you have an understanding of where my oil paintings come from.

Here are some other books I've still got that were huge influences on me.. still are!

8. And some more..

9. John Harris is another artist I love but didn't discover him until a bit later.

His oil paintings are breathtaking in the flesh!

10. And I have been fortunate to meet both Jim Burns, John Harris, Mark Harrison and Chris Moore AND exhibit beside them at Illuxcon in 2015.

Yep.. that's me being stupid!

11. Illuxcon 2015

12. Of course this guy was another massive influence!

Ron Cobb. Never managed to meet him despite him living here in Sydney most of my life!

And Alien having an ancient abandoned shipwreck was doubly cool!