After serving as a Spitfire pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, Philip Gardner spent twenty five years as a Creative Director in advertising, before forsaking London for that hauntingly beautiful part of North Norfolk which is bounded by salt marsh and tidal creek. This was undoubtedly the influence that led him to become a full-time artist, and many of his watercolours are of the Norfolk coast.

His work is evocative, impressionistic and economical, although his watercolours may include a figure or two - a baitdigger thigh-booting his way across a muddy creek, children playing beach cricket or a wildfowler with his dog.