Alan was born and grew up in Surrey and studied art at Wimbledon School of Art as a junior. On leaving school he had to choose between a career in music or painting. He chose to study both flute and piano and subsequently worked as an orchestral musician, a teacher and later as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Throughout those years he continued to paint whenever possible. At the age of 50 he resigned his teaching post in order to develop his artistic ideas more fully.
He is married and lives in Exeter, exhibiting mostly in the Southwest and is a member of both Plymouth Society of Arts and the Westward Ho! & Bideford Art Society.