In 1991 he became involved with the restoration of the Town Mill in Lyme Regis. He stepped down as chairman in 2000. During this time he began running summer workshops at Parnham in Beaminster and in different parts of Japan. In 2008 he was invited by the Sasakawa Foundation of Great Britain to spend four weeks travelling and drawing in Japan. The trip included a walk along parts of the Kumano Kodo, an ancient Buddhist/Shinto pathway in the Kii Peninsular which links numerous temples and shrines, often located near waterfalls or some other natural feature.

For the next eight years he worked on ideas directly inspired by his experiences in Japan. At first he did not know how to express the sense of mystery and wonder the walk had evoked in him. A commission to carve new organ pipe shades for St Michael’s Church in Lyme Regis acted as a catalyst.  For the first time he experimented with gilding, under-painting and pierced carving and, using these techniques, he went on to make some large woodcarvings relating directly to his Japanese drawings. He showed these in Lyme Regis in 2010. He showed more gilded pathway carvings, their size and impact condensed to that of icons, together with woodcuts prints, in his first exhibition at Sladers Yard in 2013. His latest carvings and paintings continue that thinking in a response to his surroundings at home. He lives with his wife, Barbara Steel, who is also a painter. They have a daughter, and three grandchildren.