An outdoors person at heart, Colin was born in Wellington, moving to the West Coast in the 1970s and more recently to Marlborough.  On the Coast Colin developed his craft and in 1978 became one of the few full time artists in New Zealand.  As the Navy's artist he has freedom of choice of subject and while he makes use of artistic licence, he also pays considerable attention to detail.  He works in a variety of media, mainly oil and acrylic, but also gouache, water colour or pastel as required by the subject, mood or location.  Similarly he works both in the studio and on location.  To date Colin has completed over 1,500 paintings, the subject of many is the outdoors he loves, but also many with a maritime theme, such as the painting of the fishing boat in Cook Strait, that was the catalyst for his becoming the Navy's artist.  Colin's paintings are represented in private, public and corporate collections, both in New Zealand and overseas.