Are all your paintings based on real places, and how do you select locations?
Yes, they are all a record of places I have visited and mostly painted from my own photos, sometimes for a specific purpose. For example, Yorkshire Coast locations for the gallery I work with in Whitby, or my home city Wakefield, a walk in the park or anywhere really. I tend to see everything as a potential painting. Whatever the subject, it’s my policy to create art entirely from my own thoughts, ideas and experiences in my own style. That way I can say my art is 100% my own.
What influences you to work in acrylic over watercolour and oil? How do your brushes influence this?
I prefer to use acrylic because it’s versatile, convenient, easy to work with and it copes with changes I want to make as the painting develops. I mostly use acrylic ink for its vibrancy and its ability to be used neat or watered down or mixed with white depending on the effect I want. I’ve used watercolours in the past but prefer a bolder and more opaque finish and occasionally experiment with oils which I love for their buttery consistency and the way they blend, but not the length of time they take to dry.
My brushes need to be reasonably firm and springy for me to apply consistent pressure when doing precise line work and also need to withstand a slight scrubbing action I sometimes use when mixing colour on the paper to give the effect I want, for example, the light and dark tones and texture on trees. I mainly use only four brushes, a rigger for line work and detail and three different sized flats depending on the area I’m painting at the time. My Pro Arte brushes work well in every way for me and are a joy to use!