How are ideas conceived? Where does inspiration spring from? Well the idea and inspiration for this painting, ‘The Lovers’ I owe to a work entitled ‘The Wedded’ painted in 1882 by Lord Fredric Leighton (1830 - 1896). Leighton’s grandfather was principal physician to the Russian royal family....
I know, I thought, I’ll do a landscape! People like landscapes. They’re commercial. And punters are more likely to buy landscapes because, as the English would say, ‘they go with the wallpaper.’ Or, maybe, the ‘curtains.’ I don’t generally paint landscapes. Although I have a genuine liking...
Have you ever used the term - higgledy piggledy? Well that’s what sprang to mind when I was thinking about how to best describe my creative approach, my methodology. If I were asked to explain how I go about collating the ideas for each new painting ‘higgledy...
This is the third in a series of three paintings all of which centred and subsequently evolved around images of ancient ruins. The original visuals were researched and found online but I only use them as reference, as a starting point. And I never know where...
After not picking up brushes and paint for year after year after year, when I finally bought a canvas this was the first artwork I produced. This is the first off the production line in, what was personally, a voyage of re-discovering painting. As usual I didn’t...
So what’s this one all about? Well, it’s the second painting in a series of three, all of which sprang into life and onto the canvas around a central theme of ancient ruins. I like weather-beaten, man-made stone relics and ruins. They remain an intriguing snapshot of...
This work heralds a change of direction and a departure in theme and subject matter from previous canvases. Although I find it perplexingly difficult to explain my choices and the reasons behind the decisions I made. I’ve long admired the work of Laurence Alma-Tadema (1836 -1912)....
A ‘Still Life’ for the 21st. Century. My second visit, with this painting, to an earlier theme and subject matter. But this time the title tells it like it is. I set the whole thing up using a black background which changed as soon as the paint...
OK, here’s the story behind how this painting came into being. I’d bought a 152.4 cms by 50.8 cms (or 60 inches by 20 inches in old money) linen canvas in an art-store sale. I’d had it for ages but didn’t know what I was going...
There were no iPads, laptops or smartphones when I was a kid. Not even colour TV. At the age of 8 my imagination was ignited by comics. I spent my ‘Saturday Sixpence’ on The Dandy, Beano, Topper, Beezer or Eagle. Most were printed and published...