Born in Kent in 1975, and subsequently growing up in rural areas throughout Surrey, Dan quickly fell in love with the world of plants, spending all his free time either climbing trees or drawing them.  

Outside of his art, Dan’s working life has revolved around flora: as a forestry worker, a tree surgeon, a rights-of-way assistant, a keeper of a botanic house, and as a self-employed gardener. Dan became aware of art as a career choice when he was awarded a full art scholarship to Epsom College in 1988. This led eventually to him gaining a 2:1 BA Fine Art degree from Leeds University ten years later.  Dan currently lives and works in Brighton & Hove and is a member of Studio 106, an artists' collective that works and exhibits in a converted warehouse space in the Poet's Corner district of Hove. By painting images of plants, Dan combines his two main interests in life, and has built a solid foundation for creating striking yet sensitive artwork.

“Gardens have always held a special place in my imagination. They are budding with life, and are full of colour, texture and form. With hard work and careful planting, they become ever-changing living sculptures, within which one can hide, play, relax and dream.”

Having handled plants as a professional gardener for almost half his life, Dan now has an intrinsic understanding of how they bud, grow, bloom, whither and die. He no longer uses reference material to produce his images, instead relying solely on his inner eye and visual memory. It is this intimate knowledge that he attempts to capture and express in his paintings.

Dan’s love of patterns has led him to appropriate art from across the world and across the ages. Aboriginal art has a strong influence in his work, reflecting the land and a spiritual connection with it. Islamic art is useful when considering the meditative process of producing more intricately detailed work. Japanese art from the Edo period influences his compositions. Body decoration, such as Mehndi hand painting, Maori tattoos, and African tribal art has always influenced his patterns. 20th century Western art informs Dan’s mark-making, such as action-painting and 'taking the line for a walk'.