Born 1938 in Pitsmoor, a district of Sheffield. Joe was brought up on a diet of National Dried Milk and the necessity of coupons for everything. Austerity, rock and roll and latterly service in the R.A.F. have been factors in his lifestyles and attitudes. His horizons are not the wide vistas of Nash or Constable, but the crazy chimney pot skylines of J.B. Priestley, The desire to paint is a conscious expression of his love for the Yorkshire culture, best expressed in the music hall like stories in the canvases,- the corner shop, chapel and works crisscrossed with railways and back streets. The scene is set for his tales of the 1950s.