studio 21, tontine st studios, folkestone
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'Landscape and Still Life Paintings' is the site where you can see my most recent work. I paint on mdf board primed with acrylic gesso. For the past few years I have been using acrylic paints as they are so practical, particularly when painting outdoors. Painting, to me, is about the experience of observing an object or location and recording that experience over a period of time. I always work from observation as it is easier to paint something you are looking at rather than trying to build the image away from the subject later on. Capturing local colours as they appear to me is one of the fascinating aspects of painting.My Painting Method:
I start a painting by covering the board with a colour such as burnt sienna in order to begin with a warm mid tone. Then I use pthalocyanine blue with burnt sienna or umber to draw in the basic composition sight size and place in the main areas of mid and dark tone. After this it becomes more of a free for all as I try and paint in the local colours and tones, working over previous layers until I feel some balance or sense of place has been reached. I have been aware for a long time that white is something that should only appear at a certain point in the development of the painting and even then should be used with consideration. Sometimes a painting is completed in one session. On other occasions I have to keep returning to the same place over three or four different days.Bio:
I was born in Antigua in the Carribbean and raised in Cornwall, England. I am based in Folkestone in Kent, England, but retain connections with Cornwall. I have a BA (hons) degree in Fine Art from Wirral Metropolitan College and a National Diploma from Plymouth College of Art and Design. I am interested in many types of painting and have experimented with different approaches. Being curious about modern painting I have tried my hand at large colour field paintings in the past, however over the years it has always been the case that I have returned to working from observation.
