Born in 1954, Colin has made his living as an artist and draughtsman since leaving school at seventeen, when he joined a commercial studio in London's West End. Here he specialized in illustration and also attended classes at St Martins School of Art. After four years he left to make his living as a freelance artist and over the years his work has been widely published both here and abroad. He continues working as a painter today, from his studio in the Taw valley at Umberleigh.

Painting mainly in watercolours or oils, his work often depicts the life and everyday activity of the people and animals found in the countryside of the South West, on farms, in markets and around the coast. Perhaps it is cattle heading into the milking parlour, sheep being auctioned in the livestock markets, or the quiet interior of an old barn, but it is the way the often fleeting light transforms these ordinary things into something special that he attempts to capture through his use of tone and colour.

He endeavours to shed light on these intimate and elusive moments before they disappear. He also enjoys painting abroad and has frequently done so in recent years, travelling in Europe to both France and Spain in search of new subject matter.

Over the years he has won many prizes for his work and is an elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (RI), The Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) and of course the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts. Recent prizes he has received are the Turner Medal presented for outstanding watercolour at the RI in 2009, and Excellence in Watercolour at the Royal West of England Academy in 2010. His paintings are held in public and private collections in the UK and abroad.

He has, for a number of years, been a correspondence tutor for the Open College of the Arts and frequently teaches on workshops throughout the country.