Media Preferences: Oils & Watercolors

My interest in creating art goes back many more years than I wish to remember. Painting is a means to express myself and bring to the public forum my interpretation of and passion for this beautiful natural world.

To achieve this feeling and passion for the landscape or flowers before me, I decide intuitively which of the four media (oils, acrylics, watercolours or pastels) will best capture what drew me to the scene in the first place.

Usually it is a sense of sharp contrast or vivid colour or muted tones that stand out as different or spectacular. My approach is to capture the scene by a sketch with notations of light, colour, sun direction and values for later creation of a painting in the studio or as a planned approach to painting outside on site.

I am a self-taught artist. Over the years I have taken workshops given by other artists to hone and sharpen my skills and venture into areas that display what I wish to say about the natural world.

I have had two one-man shows in the Blyth Festival gallery and the Agnes Jamieson Gallery in Minden, plus numerous group shows over the years.