I believe every artist no matter who he or she is owes something to someone. I don't believe I am any exception. I have been influenced by the great landscape artists, Cuyp, Ruisdaee, Hobbema, the Williams family, Nasmyth and Constable. Regarding surrealism and fantasy, Salvador Dali of course, Boris Vallejo, Froud and Frank Frazetta I consider to be masters of their craft.

What are the challenges of being an artist?

An artist must above all be dedicated and single minded towards his own aims and objectives. The hardest thing is to stay on track and not be distracted by other interests. To be successful art must be all consuming to a degree. Regarding the work of painting, the challenge is to strive to make the work everything it can be within the limits of your own ability.

Without doubt my best medium is oil. Oil gives the greatest flexibility and the most rewarding end product. Besides anything else, there is more variety in the techniques you can use. Watercolour, gouache and acrylic are fine, but they have limitations for the depth of colours and getting that extra degree of freedom when it comes to the use of glazes. Quick drying times can be a disadvantage when you want to blend colours together.

For an average painting of 15in. x 18 in. in oils about 3 weeks

I have always read widely, both fiction and non-fiction, and this has always helped me construct imagery in my mind. This ability is essential to accurately visualise any idea or concept. But as for the actual inspiration that triggers the images, that comes from somewhere else. Ideas for a painting seem to just pop into existence. I guess there must be some input at a subconscious level.

Where I can, and it seems appropriate, I do slip in some reference to mathematics and science in my paintings. This may be at an obvious level or express itself by me being particularly accurate with the perspective.

Regarding my teaching background, I believe that artists should share their experiences with fellow artists. In that respect I have never left my teaching. My tutorials are an outlet for my skills in that area.

These are many and varied, but if I were asked for my most important technique it would be in the preparation of the canvas or panel. The gesso must be of the correct consistency and the surface prepared to the correct absorbancy and finish.

Surrealism - An art style developed in Europe in the 1920's, characterized by using the subconscious as a source of creativity to liberate pictorial subjects and ideas.

The first step is the sketch. This in the beginning is very rough indeed. The next step is to arrange the composition. The sketch is never perfect, so you need to be able to move the elements around. I do this by cutting the sketch up and placing them over another piece of paper. When I am happy, i stip the pieces of paper down. The first working sketch is obtained by tracing this image and transferring to another piece of paper. More detail is added at this stage before the image is scaled up on the actual canvas.

Fine detail can only be produced with fine brushes. I use the best quality sable watercolour brushes. The other element is to use a properly prepared ground for the canvas. The gesso surface must be ivory smooth and not too absorbant.

you now have the option of paying by any
of the major credit cards or using PayPal