| The most important thing I have learned after many years of training, dabbling, drawing and painting is that the more you learn the more you realise you still do not know. Producing art is a continuing voyage of discovery. Aspirations shift and change along with one’s ability.
I learned my craft through Adult Education, starting with Evening Life Drawing at Wimbledon SOA, various courses subsequently at Folkestone Arts Centre, back in London at Morley College. However the biggest influence latterly was St Ives School of Painting (short courses) where I was encouraged to leave behind the literal approach and to experiment, simplify and move towards abstraction.
Where do I find inspiration? In the sweep of a hillside, the turn of a thigh, the personality of a tree.
I am attracted to the artists of 1940s to 1960s such as Nicholson, Scott, Sutherland for simplication, Heron for colour, Bomberg and his legatee Julian Le Bas for their exciting charcoals. The challenge is to explain what excites me, whether a landscape or a nude, giving as little information as possible; to find the essence without the detail. I suppose this is what writing poetry is about.
People are welcome to see my work at home during Wandsworth Artists’ Open House Festival in October, or by appointment at any time.
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