I grew up in England’s West Country in a little village near Salisbury, where Constable painted the Cathedral.
My Grandfather worked on a farm and when we walked the lanes I felt a strong kinship with the beauty of this countryside.
Every Saturday we would travel to market in Salisbury and I could sit in the very spot Constable had sat in and see the Cathedral from his perspective. This was the time I persuaded my relatives that good presents for me would be paints and brushes.
Nostalgia plays a large part in my art, images from my earlier days superimpose themselves on the art I see every where I look, I feel that strong connection to the natural beauty of the scenery around me even areas of decay offer small pieces of wonder.
When I start a painting for myself it will, as it proceeds, begin to take on a life of it’s own and it will show me how it wants to develop, it leads I follow, almost all my paintings, with the exception of commissions, develop this way.
Sometimes when I stand back from a painting after a break of a day or two I will see it in a different light and the changes happen, something in it says "do you remember this" and nostalgia comes creeping back.
I paint in Watercolour, Acrylic or Oil as the mood or idea takes me, often having one or more of each in various stages of development, and I have never lost the sense of excitement from seeing the way a painting develops as it flows from my brush or knife.
Colour is my forte, I will see colour before I see shapes and while I agree that one cannot improve on natures colours it is still possible to enhance them so the person viewing one of my paintings can feel the real beauty of natures wonder.