Back in the time of when I was painting for a living, my main focus was my original art. My work then was mainly of the beach… a subject that changes every day and evolves. I love also to paint other scenes using the same style as you will see in the gallery, but for me the beach is well… me.

I do use my own photographs, but strictly as reference material for ideas, Almost all of my paintings are of of nowhere in particular, they are just ‘made up’ scenes from ideas.

My Studio

Having somewhere to work with the added benefit of north and south facing windows, for creating and painting art is a great benefit which I am lucky to have. I do also use a angle desk type lamp with an incorporated daylight bulb which provides that extra bit of light for close-up detailed stuff.

I use a drawing board which I bought second hand from a local paper years ago at a cost of £50. As most of the original paintings I create tend to be on the smaller side, the drawing board is ideal. For larger paintings I use an easel within the same room, or when the sun is shining, I try and work outside.

I use gouache, watercolour, acrylics and more recently oils. Gouache and water colour though, is what I have mainly used in almost all of my work over the years.

Gouache, in case you did not know, is an opaque water based paint containing gum arabic. It’s a bit like watercolour in consistency but gouache is a not transparent like watercolour but opaque as in is does not let light through to other painted layers. Depending upon what sort of effect you want, gouache can be applied straight from the tube, diluted and applied like watercolour or, as I do, mixed with water in varying quantities and used alongside watercolour. I find they both work well together if used in the order of gouache first, then watercolour… otherwise the gouache will obliterate any watercoloour glazes. I’m only saying this through experience and do not want to give any lessons, but merely to explain how it works for me.

When choosing paint, I will always try and use the best quality artist’s paints available. This also applies for oil and acrylic paints.

I have found (for me anyhow) that mount board or illustration board provides an excellent smooth acid free surface upon which to apply the paint. I do use watercolour paper too, which tends to to be the thicker paper, about 140lb upwards. Mount board is very thick… after all it is for mounting pictures, but I find it a superb surface to work on for what I do.