A bit about me

I haven’t always been a dyed-in-the-wool painter. As a kid I used to draw a lot and won an art prize or two at school, but my first love was playing guitar (loudly) and showing-off on stage whenever I could. I eventually attended art college in Cardiff (whilst still pursuing a music career). I figured that painting a few pictures and pursuing ‘liberated’ young ladies had to be better than being at school and living in a northern mining town.

Big shock! I discovered many musicians who were much better than I was, the young ladies tended not to be liberated towards an unsubtle Yorkshire chauvinist, and college wanted to change me from figurative to abstract painter.

I felt criticised, misunderstood, de-motivated and my self esteem became as fragile as snow. In hindsight this was the best thing that could have happened to me, because, along with a few more of life’s lessons, it informed my philosophy on how I should live my life and in turn, teach others.

Always look for the positive and build on that. Building on negatives is a contradiction in terms. Remember, being positive is like a smile, it is infectious.

It is not how good you are or convention says you should be, it is how good you want to be that matters.

Painting is not an elitist endeavour and anyone who enjoys feelings of superiority does not understand the true nature of personal expression and the communication of emotion.

You have every right to enjoy your work and have fun doing it. If you don’t there is help out there….me!

Anyone can paint and get a lot from the doing……fact!

Apart from all this stuff I’m 50 something, living in Lechlade with my wife Cathy and a couple of occasional sons (Uni). I love music, fishing, cooking and talking / showing-off on a stage whenever I can. Some things never change!

Technique

All of my portrait work is produced with oil paint onto canvas or board using traditional glaze and impasto techniques, gleaned from the approach of geniuses such as Rembrandt and Titian.

I use dark, thin layers of oil paint (glazes) for shadows. This creates the illusion of depth which contrasts against increasingly thicker paint (impasto) as the subject becomes lighter and moves forward out of the canvas. Sometimes my brushstrokes are subtle to just caress the picture, other times they are bold to punctuate a visual statement, as I seek to convey a distinct personality and intriguing story.

Commissions

I take commissions on a variety of subjects from people to wildlife. Most of my work is produced to a reasonably large size and it takes between 4 and 12 weeks to complete a picture.

I work from sittings and / or photographs, but in most cases I must take the pictures myself.

Costs

Paintings cost from £800 to £3000 depending upon size and complexity. Specific prices are available