About Us

Years of inspection and quality control in the oil and pipeline industry working as an oil pipeline inspector ties in well with the industrial painting of silos, gas tanks and steel structures.  Paying close attention to detail is what Stewart is good at.

During the 70s and early 80s, Stewart decided to travel the world learning his new trade in oil pipeline inspection.  By 1972, he knew that the North Sea oil boom was where he wanted to be.  By 1977 he was in the thick of it.  Involved in quality control and coating inspection from the new 2nd Dartford Tunnel under construction, to the massive construction site that was Sullom Voe, Shetland.  There he was to see the 'first oil ashore' and went on to design concrete castings for the protection of seabed exposed cables and lines in the South Cormorant oil field.  A rig was to be repositioned and the stabilising drag chains had to pass over the lines lying on the seabed - without damaging those lines.

Stewart also spent time in ultrasonic and the radiographic inspection of steel tankage and pipelines and worked as a liaison officer for inspection on the giant Jeddah De-salination / Power Plant on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia.

After the Middle East, Stewart went to work for a time in Southern Germany, near Heidelberg, in the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Station, then on to Angola, West Africa.  A great contrast - the wealth of the Middle East to a civil war in full swing, also not to mention the area was infested with poisonous snakes, mambas and puff adders!  This oil installation has since been destroyed in the continuing fighting there.

'About this time I thought, it's time to be at home,
and I set up Industrial Painting in 1983'.

In 1993 Stewart had a six month contract back in Saudi Arabia.  This time in Al knobar and Dhahran, in the Persian Gulf.  With 200 Philippino painters he was Area Manager of all Eastern Provinces from Kuwait to the Arab Emirates.  He got to travel the deserts of Arabia, viewing with great interest, areas where T.E Lawrence had his adventures in 1914-18 during the First World War.

With deep interest in the world wars and in weaponry, he saw Kuwait after Desert Storm (Iraq/Kuwait war) and took a team of Philippino workers up to Hafar Al Batin on the Iraqi Border to the military city where coalition forces went into Iraq at the start of Desert Storm.

'Further south I was able to visit the desert township of Hofuf
where Judas Iscariot came from - his cave home is still there!'

In the 1993 trip to Saudi, Stewart met Saad Bin Laden, brother of the infamous terrorist - the family are building contractors.  Stewart's Philippino painters worked in searing 50°c heat painting housing developments, shopping malls and palaces to pipelines and oil tanks.

'After viewing some of the war damage and blown up Iraqi tanks
in Saudi, I actually painted some of Saddam's tanks and weaponry
back here in the UK for Charles Baker-Cresswell.  The T55 and
other pieces are destined for a military museum.'