My name is Matthew Webber, and since November 1999 I've been living in
Staffordshire in England, after growing up in Hertfordshire and South
London. At the time of writing (November 2004) I'm thirty seven years old. By profession I'm a train driver, currently plying the route between Manchester and Cardiff for Arriva Trains Wales, but I studied Astrophysics at London University (alas the degree slipped through my fingers!) and I see myself more as an artist, having achieved some modest success painting portraits of horses and fantasy subjects.
I've been fascinated by horses all my life, and through my interest in fantasy this evolved into my unusual passion for unicorns. It was a unicorn that was the subject of my first serious attempt at painting, and the subject of many pieces of artwork since, from paintings and drawings to tapestry and CGI, hence the name Unicorn Dream.
In 2000 I married Ana, and simultaneously acquired two step-children, Christopher (17) the Formula One fanatic and Nigel (15), who lives for Pokemon, Yu-gi-Oh, and Beyblades. We also have a new arrival, a wonderful daughter named Jade, who is now three years old. She shows firm promise of being her father's daughter: her first clear words were "chocolate" and "horsies".
Both Ana and I are quite creative. Ana makes wonderful bobbin lace, makes clothing, and loves sewing, embroidery and machine knitting, and I basically try my hand at any media that takes my fancy at the time! I like painting in acrylic but recently I'm turning more and more to CGI. The biggest advantage with CGI is that I can quickly save a copy of my work at any stage and experiment with different effects with no fear of spoiling my work. I've heard the opinion that using a computer for art is somehow 'cheating', but this isn't a point of view I subscribe to!
Another other strong interest is in anime - Japanese animation. Although frequently weird and controversial in content, I really enjoy some of its lighter-hearted offerings, especially the numerous "teenage romance comedies" such as Tenchi Muyo, Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura, and Ah, My Goddess!
If you'd like to email me about this site or anything else then please do! I won't promise to reply (I keep trying to fit 48 hours into a day but with no success yet) but I'll do my best!
