Often referred to as one of our greatest living painters of the sea, Tabner was born at South Bank near Middlesbrough and educated at Middlesborough College of Art; Bath Academy of Art at Corsham and at the University of Reading. He is winner of many awards and has painted in some of the world’s most inhospitable places. There have been numerous one-man exhibitions around the country, and a number with Agnew’s in London. A documentary of his life and work was made by TTTV in 1991.

Tabner often works out at sea in an open boat on huge sheets of heavy paper pinned to an upturned trestle table, using watercolours laced with pastel.
Tabner lives with his wife and family in a stone house largely built by himself, on the highest cliff on the East coast of England.