Who I am

I’ve been painting all my life, and love anything unusual, quirky or dramatic. I’m an artist rather than an illustrator as I try to catch the essence of the subject matter rather than produce a totally faithful reproduction of it.

Having honed my artistic skills over the years with painting using a brush, I love to use my brain now to help me paint a picture. I think that the actual painting of a picture is only one tenth of the stage of creation of it, the other nine tenths is the experience of assessing the subject matter, considering the composition, the lighting, the colours, how the shapes interact, the impact of negative shapes, the focus, and interest, and sometimes a title can take longer to think of than the actual painting of a picture – if I can find an ambiguous title, I love it!

I think art should be viewed on a personal level, if you like it, it doesn’t matter what other people think of it.

I delight in getting a reaction to my artwork – even if it’s a rare, negative one, at least its been noticed! A positive reaction is even better though.

I love to invoke different emotions in my work.

I accept commissions on any subject.

I love to open my mind up to new ideas, and thrive on it. I love to create. 

I love to stimulate my brain by the way I paint, and give myself a challenge and I like to stimulate the viewers brain by what I’ve created. Art isn’t always about painting what’s infront of you, its can be about painting what you can’t see sometimes! A camera will faithfully reproduce the image in front of it but as an artist I want to look beyond that and ascertain what can be removed from the image and still leave the essence of the subject, and hopefully add to it by the process.

Life drawing is very exacting, just getting the right tiny detail in place makes a vast difference to the finished image.

I love the tricks to add interest and excitement to a picture, and therefore excite the brain.

I love painting life and the interesting aspects of it.

I adore painting big cats, and tigers in particular, because they epitomise everything I delight in  – bright colour, dramatic markings, and the lovely feline way of peaceful softness followed by unexpected powerful fury. Nature in the raw.

And I love to paint people’s desires, whether its to see their house, pet or children created in artwork, or if it’s to paint a fantasy of themselves, their image of what they want to be, created in a white on black drawing.

I feel that what makes a drawing an erotic one is the addition perhaps, of an object, an item of clothing, a hint of something unsaid, a subtle insinuation, all of which add interest to a picture and take it out of the ordinary. 

My models like to pose for me because I enhance the attributes of the parts of their bodies they’re happy with, and reduce the parts they’re not! And I’ve done some nice bedroom pictures for people, because it’s always nice to have private and personal erotic images of yourself in your own personal gallery!

How I paint

The pour-on technique adds interest as the basis of watercolours because there is only a basic control of where the paint will end up and different colours and differing heaviness of paints will always react in unexpected and delightfully spontaneous ways that can never be replicated or controlled by human hand or brush. The hardest part is to leave it untouched after the paint has been applied, so it can weave its own magic unhindered, and leave bright clear lines and colour because its dried naturally. Then the question is which parts to remove, which will add to the image, and enhance it, and to build the painting up from those decisions. I like the challenge of it, and love the bits of serendipity that make the painting more exciting, because I’ve not controlled it, but have been able to utilise it to my advantage. It’s very exciting! And as far as watercolour is concerned, splatter adds the interest of movement and optical mixing on the paper.

I’m passionate about lost and found edges in both my drawings and paintings, as they add interest and excitement for the viewer’s eye.

The white on black images are interesting because its just picking up small details, the light on selected parts of the human body, and not all the details need to be added, the viewer knows what should be there even if they don’t exist on paper. They are basically pure light or pure darkness, very simplistic but far more interesting because of it, only the light illuminating the body is portrayed on the paper – the rest of the body in shadow is ignored. The emphasis is on the minimum of detail and lost and found edges create the unison between the figure and the background. The least possible information creates more interest to the eyes. Not every line needs to be drawn on the page to make an interesting pictorial image. Creative lighting creates more dramatic pictures. Shadows cross over light, light crosses over darkness. 

I also like trying different medias, and happily use watercolour, oils or pencil but sometimes I like to turn to different techniques in acrylics, inks, pastels or mixed media as it opens the mind and sometimes creates a different way of tackling a subject. If I need a particular shade of colour or texture that can’t be replicated in watercolour, then I’ll try something else.

Who inspires me to paint

I’ve always loved surreal art and am inspired by artists who make me think or who give me a different way of viewing things.

What inspires me to paint

Art is such a big subject, and there’s so much to learn from different aspects of it and I love it as an ever-changing subject. But I think I’ve honed my skills now and I’m happy with the way I paint and there are always different things that are always inspiring me to paint and that’s why I don’t just paint one subject – I’d get stilted and bored easily if I do. I love figures, felines and also a dramatic landscape. I can admire a well-executed painting of another artists still life, but it doesn’t move me – I’ll only ever look at it and think, “that’s a vase of flowers”. I like to paint pictures that make people think, as I’ve had the thought process to be motivated to paint it in the first place. I ask myself why I’m interested in it, it might just be the interplay of light, or a particular shade of turquoise that I love and want to emulate, or a title that comes to me as a good idea to explore, or the interaction between human beings, or a particular scene that inspires me to want to capture the moment infront of me. It’s all of these things but basically because I just love the passion of painting and drawing.

Where I paint

I’ve always been a studio painter rather than an outdoor painter but then the subject matter I cover might be gleaned from various sources, and if it’s from photographic material, its most easiest to use infront of me in my studio. And of course if I’m using a model for the figure drawings I have to have a warm room and be able to control the light so it will be artificial and angled accordingly for the best effect.