About Bren

I’m a freelance cartoonist with a passion for the sea, art, and science, and a long history of analysing and enabling communication in business.

It happened like this:

• When I was 6, I looked for fossils in the coal scuttle.  I didn’t find any but it was so much fun I decided to be a geologist.
• As a child, I also loved watching the ships on the Mersey. I’d go to Burbo Bank to see them waiting at the bar for a pilot to guide them in, and I decided to be a pilot.
• From being the one who drew the umbrella or the sun on the class weather chart, I graduated to cloud gazing and an intense interest in weather forecasting. A few weeks’ work experience at UMIST atmospheric physics department was so inspiring I decided to become a meteorologist.
• As a kid I loved comics and would read all I could get hold of. At school I caused quite a fuss when I decided to take art instead of physics.

Which way would it all go? My physics teacher threw a wobbly, so I ended up taking physics rather than art. My eyesight wasn’t up to being a pilot (I was told), and I discovered that meteorology was thinly disguised maths, so I went ahead with the original plan to be a geologist.

I’ve spent my time working as a programmer, software consultant, knowledge engineer (that means asking very expert and specialist people lots of questions and translating their answers into information other people can use) and, finally, business analyst (more of the same).

I’ve worked on fascinating projects all over the world, from Artificial Intelligence programming at RTZ to sedimentology research cruises on RRS Challenger in the Western Approaches off the Isles of Scilly.

The artist wouldn’t be suppressed, however, so I also went to art college in Bristol and specialised in relief printing under the exceptional tutelage of Peter Reddick.  I worked as a printmaker and painter for four years, creating lino prints and wood engravings, and developing a painting style using coloured pencil layered with oil pastel.

What happened to the comics? I started drawing cartoons and fell into the energising company of cartoonists within the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain.

Now the passions in my life are coming together.  I combine my analytical, people facing, and artistic skills to understand what information people need to communicate and help them get their message across. I get involved with science projects, and I also get to hang out with cartoonists. What more could anyone want?