Fortunately, my father was a painter and decorator so my earliest canvases were the backs of rolls of wallpaper that were supposedly for his customers.
Living on the edge of the city, I was fascinated by the surrounding countryside and would slowly venture further and further out on my pushbike. I ended up spending most of my teenage years travelling around the country on marathon cycling holidays with friends whenever the chance arose. It always occurred to me that there was so much to see on my bike that you would never notice when travelling by car.
Art was my favourite subject at school and when I left I served an apprenticeship as a sign-writer at nearby Aintree racecourse. I am sure that this period in my life much influenced my animation and graphic style of painting.
Inspired by Liverpool's marvellous range of architecture, in my spare time I would paint nostalgic landscapes of the city in watercolours for family and friends. Encouraged by this, in 1999 I left the sign-making profession and became self-employed, combining my increasing painting commissions with an innovative bespoke gift idea. This would provide customers with a framed presentation that displayed my paintings with the names of the inhabitants of a given Liverpool street. I received a business award for this and also for my design of a football board game.
In 2005 I married Katie who has influenced me considerably with her younger outlook on life. She inspired and encouraged my contemporary style of painting which has since been rewarded with a publishing contract with Washington Green.
Art was my favourite subject at school and when I left I served an apprenticeship as a sign-writer at nearby Aintree racecourse. I am sure that this period in my life much influenced my animation and graphic style of painting.
Inspired by Liverpool's marvellous range of architecture, in my spare time I would paint nostalgic landscapes of the city in watercolours for family and friends. Encouraged by this, in 1999 I left the sign-making profession and became self-employed, combining my increasing painting commissions with an innovative bespoke gift idea. This would provide customers with a framed presentation that displayed my paintings with the names of the inhabitants of a given Liverpool street. I received a business award for this and also for my design of a football board game.
In 2005 I married Katie who has influenced me considerably with her younger outlook on life. She inspired and encouraged my contemporary style of painting which has since been rewarded with a publishing contract with Washington Green.
I love the humour of birds congregating in huge numbers - sometimes on a telegraph wire or a tree - and yet go unnoticed by most people passing by. I imagine that they must really like each other to hang around together so much. I think the humour of my childhood comics is sometimes evident. I don't want my paintings to be too serious and would even like to make the viewer smile a little bit. A completed work will often give me a feeling of deja-vu. It's as if I've visited the view before, perhaps I have and it has simply faded from my memory.
My work has been likened to the American artist Eyvind Earle - like him, I am fascinated by the shapes of shadows, particularly in the twilight of the day when they become elongated and stretch the view into the distance. This is why the cropping of my finished painting is important to me too. If I can somehow draw the viewer in, it will leave them wondering what lies just outside the view of the painting.
I produce preliminary sketches whenever the mood takes me. I often find I can visualise new ideas for paintings when very relaxed and closing my eyes to go to sleep although this can often result in a very sleepless night! However, I have always felt it important to get as much sleep as possible before painting because I like to feel relaxed and calm when putting brush to canvas.
From many rough sketches I will select my favourites which I think will make the grade as a finished work.
A quick roughing out on the canvas will lead to painting sky, background and foreground in that order, usually in the first day. The second day, I will paint figures, shadows and adjust the composition of these if necessary. The third day is left for adding and tweaking the more detailed parts of the piece.
Sometimes the finished work can vary considerably from the initial sketch. I can fall in love with one painting from the beginning and remain happy with it to its conclusion and yet with another the pieces only fall into place at the end
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