LightWork began during a particularly difficult chapter of my life.

I’m a dad of four boys, and a couple of years ago I found myself struggling with neuroplastic pain — a condition where the brain can become stuck sending pain signals even when there is no ongoing physical injury causing them. For me, it came after a lot of difficult experiences and trauma, and part of my recovery has been learning to retrain my brain and give it something positive to focus on.

I needed something that could completely occupy my mind, and creativity became a huge part of that.
I come from a very creative family. My mum is an artist, my dad was a singer and a writer, and I’ve always loved writing and creating myself. Around the same time, I had my youngest son, Lucky, and I started playing around with the idea of creating little colouring pages and characters for him to enjoy as he grew up.

That idea eventually became The Lucky Cowboy.

At first, it was simply something I enjoyed doing. There was no grand business plan behind it. I was creating, learning, experimenting and giving my imagination somewhere to go. But the more I created, the more ideas seemed to appear.

Seeing my nieces and nephews enjoying colouring books inspired me to explore the idea further, and before long one book became another. My lifelong love of animals naturally found its way into the work too. I’ve always been especially passionate about dogs, which led to the creation of Dogs with Jobs and the challenge of bringing as many different breeds and personalities into the books as I could.

Cats were a slightly different adventure. I knew far less about cat breeds when I started, so creating the first cat book became part of my own learning process. Since then, I’ve found myself diving deeper into different breeds, their characteristics and appearances, and that growing knowledge is now helping shape the characters and future books.

In many ways, those first books represent the beginning of my own creative journey.

When I started, I was still discovering the cartoon style I wanted to create. The characters weren’t completely set in stone and the wider world hadn’t yet been fully formed. As the books have grown, so have I. I’ve been developing my own visual style, creating consistent characters and gradually building a world that can continue from one book and adventure to the next.

So the earliest books may sometimes feel a little different from the ones that follow — but I actually love that. They are part of the story too. They show where everything began and how an idea slowly grew into something much bigger.

And the ideas haven’t stopped with books.

LightWork has naturally started growing into other creative areas too, from original artwork and prints to lightbox art and ideas for pieces designed for children’s rooms and nurseries. I’m excited by the thought of continuing to experiment, creating things I haven’t even imagined yet and seeing where each new idea leads.

At the heart of all of it is family.

I originally wanted to build something that my boys could one day be part of and, hopefully, something I could eventually leave behind for them. What started as a small creative escape during one of the hardest periods of my life has slowly become a family business, a growing collection of ideas and a place where I can continue cultivating my imagination.

I’m still learning. I’m still creating. And I’m still on my own journey with neuroplastic pain, although I’m incredibly proud of how far I’ve come over the past two years.

LightWork is growing alongside me.

And this is only the beginning.