Where to Start !
My Approach to Painting
My paintings are predominantly landscapes influenced by the countryside around me. For me the starting point always comes from the immediate landscape and a desire to translate this onto paper as quickly as possible to capture the seasonal mood, and because if I'm honest, I'm also an impatient artist.
I enjoy the immediacy of working with watercolour and oil pastel, but in recent years I have been working much more in oils and enjoying the infinite possibilities of colour and texture that this brings.
I try to bring a sense of place to my paintings without being overly specific as my work is ‘representational’ or ‘semi abstract’ , my impression of the landscape around me.
Paintings have a physical starting point, but as a painting develops I become more concerned with exploring the contours, colours, shapes and textures that develop, rather than seeking to slavishly reproduce an actual scene.
For me colour and texture will always be the most important elements within my work whatever medium I am working with, and I will always try to push both elements to their limits in the creation of my finished piece.
“ It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
“ There are painters who
transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
Pablo Picasso