Experience
I studied art at St.Edwards School under the tutelage of Nicholas Grimshaw, then Buckingham College of Higher Education. I moved to Mousehole in West Cornwall 1986 to paint professionally.
Style
My art style is heavily influenced by nature and the beauty of the world around us. I strive to capture the essence of my subjects and bring them to life on canvas. I work in oil and combine my own developed mediums which help me create the effects and glazes I want. I stretch and prime my own canvases, the largest up to 36 square feet.
My work has been exhibited in many institutions and galleries including:-
The Royal West of England Academy, The Royal Academy, The South West Academy, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, as well as independent galleries throughout the U.K.
Front cover of The lady magazine in 1992. I'm here painting on Mousehole quay on a hot and sunny day.
Many of my paintings are of a square format, I have worked like this for some 30 years as it enables me to say enough about the sea and sky while retaining the low horizontal horizons that I like in Cornwall.
St.Michael's Mount - winter storm 40" x 40" oil on canvas
In addition to my seascapes, I have always been drawn to the wildlife and in particular, the water fowl that frequent the marshes of west Cornwall
Flighting mallard 40" x 40" oil on canvas
When I'm not painting, my passion is boats. From working a fishing boat in my youth, to now restoring and racing historic power boats. Capturing the power and adrenalin of a race boat is in strict contrast to the often tranquil land and seascapes I have painted for so many years. It poses new challenges and painting techniques.
In this painting you can see the thick impasto of oil paint over the thinner glazing beneath, mostly done with 2" hogs hair brushes.
Dry Martini No. 9. 40" x 40" oil on canvas
Crucial to my technique has been the surface that I paint on. For some 30 years now I have stretched and primed my own canvases so the painting surface is the same every time.
The wooden bars are bought in pairs so that you can create the size and format of canvas required, then using 12oz un primed cotton canvas, I can carefully using canvas pliers, stretch the canvas and staple to the wooden bars. You start from the middle of one side, then the opposite side, rotating the canvas and moving to the outer edge as you go. Not easy on a 5' x 5' size. Once done, and not too tight, finish the corners with neat folds. The wood wedges are then slotted into the mitre corners in pre cut slots. These wedges can then be tapped in to tension up the canvas.
Using a 2" hogs hair brush, I then give each unprimed canvas several coats of gesso primer. The final coat is mixed with powdered pigment, which gives the canvas a mid tone before I start painting.
In that way I do not paint onto a white canvas, the mid tone allows me to get stronger darks with the translucent oil paint. The colour of the pigment is crucial to the painting as it will shine through and set the overall mood. For landscapes generally burnt sienna or raw umber. Seascapes and winter frost and snow, ultramarine. For dark winter stormy seas, I usually use the umber.
Photo Gallery
A selection of oil on linen panels. The winter floods at Marazion and Penberth tree studies as well as St.Michael's Mount.
Sizes 12" x 12" and 16" x 16"
The Studio
A mallard dropping into the marshes,
40" x 40" oil on canvas.
A mallard study,
16" x 16" oil on linen panel
2 studies of St.Michael's Mount
16" x 16" oil on linen panel
Fishing and boating from 1986
