I grew up in Cambridge, studying fine art at school and college. My favourite art styles are impressionists, colourists, pop-art, and abstract artists have always caught my attention. I'm interested in the effect of light on colour, atmosphere, complex shapes, and the juxtaposition of nature and man-made constructions. Recently I'm really enjoying traditional Russian landscapes which I have discovered through Instagram.
Despite being deeply immersed in art during my education, I ended up working with computers and have spent the last 15 years of my career at various IT companies driving a desk. But I have always painted for fun on and off over the years.
Now I live in Manchester with my wife and two young kids. Obviously covid-19 has hit this year and we're stuck in lockdown and working from home, so I have a couple of extra hours in the day and I've thrown myself back into my hobby.
I paint in the mornings in our spare room when the light is not too strong and not too direct. Also before the kids get up! I try to paint 4 times a week and am using a streak tracking app to help motivate me (called "Done").
I paint en plein air too, and have made my own portable easel based on Michael Chamberlains design (which itself was inspired by James Coulter's art box and panel concept). I was pretty nervous being out and about for everyone to see but actually I really enjoy meeting people and talking about art so I wish I could do it more often.
I paint with acrylics, currently Winsor & Newton's Galeria range but I'm tempted to try their Professional range as they advertise less colour shift on drying - this keeps catching me out! I paint mostly onto canvas boards so far for smaller paintings, although I do have a few larger stretched canvases and recently I've started making my own wood panels with plywood and Gesso for plein air studies.
Most of my paintings are produced with only 4 colours: 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow and Titanium White. I do this deliberately for a couple of reasons - A) it forces me to practice colour mixing and B) it gives the painting a cohesive feel because the colours are all closely related. I'll choose a different trio of primaries depending on the scene.
My goal this year is to produce 25 paintings (18 so far which is a lot for me!) and really improve my skill. I'm already experimenting with new subjects, canvas sizes and types, brush techniques, mediums, colour mixing, outdoor painting and so on, and I'm having a great time. And of course I'd like to sell my work!
Thanks for stopping by, do reach out and say hello on Instagram, I love meeting new artists.