WHAT MOTIVATES ME TO PAINT

I get a kick from seeing the “happy accidents” that often occur in mark-making, so I enjoy my painting. When I haven’t painted for a while, I get withdrawal symptoms. Inspiration comes from what I see around me, but not everything grabs me. I look with selective eyes.

As a boy of 8 I was in quarantine with scarlet fever. My parents plied me with books for drawing and painting in. I enjoyed that part of my illness; it developed my sense of how things looked and how they could be represented on paper. Afterwards I began to ask myself how I would draw the things I saw around me. I looked at the sky a lot and wondered how to paint the clouds. The sky is still a constant source of wonder and inspiration.

In my teenage years I discovered W Heaton Cooper, the English Lake District watercolourist. His stylised treatment of mountains, rocks and water attracted me, especially when dramatic tonal contrasts were involved. My aunt gave my confidence a tremendous boost when she paid money for my attempt at a view of The Great Gable in Lakeland. I have loved drawing and painting rocks ever since. More recently I have also learned to enjoy the wonders of fynbos landscapes.

Career training in architecture improved my drawing skills and sense of composition, colour and tone enormously. Nowadays I am using painting knives for painting in acrylics, so it is not only the pictorial qualities of the subject that motivate me but also the excitement of using a tool that has many sides to its capabilities for mark-making.

AWARDS

SASA Eleanor Palmer Trophy (1997 and 1999)
Best Acrylic at SASA Annual Exhibition (1998, 2000, 2002 and 2003)
Patchings 2001 Pro Arte award, June 2001