My art training was a non-training. I left university with a First Class Honours in how to BS and play the game. I thought I'd 'won' but on leaving education reality hit me like a brick wall and totally floored me.
That was the worst experience of my life but the best thing that ever happened to me.
It was the start of a journey that 25 years later still continues.
In that time I have lived in a tent in the foothills of the Himalayas for 6 months, spent a year saving tortoises in South Africa and 5 years living in a mud hut in a refugee camp in Sudan.
Everything I have seen has confirmed to me that humanity has got something fundamentally wrong.. but I am not a pessimist. I have a deep faith.., not in any religion, but in the truth.
Keats' words are my keystone in life;
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
These words guide me and keep me grounded.
Fundamentally I am an anarchist, but not a proponent of the silly version of anarchy that we're presented with through the media.
True anarchism proposes that natural harmony will result as the restrictive layers of state control and authoritarianism are abandoned.
When the human soul is honoured and respected it will step up to the mark and shine.. but like any over disciplined child it currently whinces and cowers at a raised hand and shrinks from it's true, magical potential.
Like all artists I try and reflect back that sense of wonder and beauty to the viewer so that on this journey we stray not too far from the path.
Portraiture
I paint in both oils and watercolour but oils have a weight and solidity that most clients prefer . Most of my commissioned work is produced using photographic reference.. primarily because most people simply don't want to sit for long periods of time. Sometimes I'll visit the client and take photographs myself and maybe do a small colour study which I love to use when keying in the colours of the final piece. When a painter has had enough experience of working from life they can use this to inform their photographic reference material.
Landscape
Occasionally I get asked to paint a certain scene for a client but more often than not it's The Downs or the seafront that I end up staring at for hours. The other day a stoat bounded up the path as I painted totally unaware that I was there. What a treat.. he got within six feet then smelt me (or the turps) and bounced back into the wheatfield.
