You're all my favourites.....

You're all my favourites.....

I am often asked what do you like to paint most ...and that is an impossible question to answer.

I began painting what I saw around me, especially on family holidays etc sitting on beaches and up on the moors. Just soaking the atmosphere and getting lost in the process of painting. There are lots of ways to enjoy the outdoors but you never look at something quite as closely as when you are painting it. When I look back at those paintings now I can actually remember the scene, the weather the sights and sounds.Much more vividly than a photo ever could.......Painting was a therapy a way to look at the world and spend time in it .

But over the years I have been able to diversify and living in mid Devon I became obsessed by the lanes and the high hedges . The shadows cast that seemed to drip like honey across the roads and the tall cow parsley and foxgloves making their own natural herbaceous border throughout the glorious summer months

Then I began the luxury of painting everyday and with it came new and exciting challenges, I was asked if I had ever painted a hare? No never , and never attempted wildlife .but off I went and a whole new array of possibilities opened up . I delighted in the discipline of getting the eye right, then being able to paint more loosely to capture movement , feathers, fur or a leaping fox

All sorts of animals followed and I have enjoyed them all ,some days I like a more controlled detailed piece like a zebra....I don't need to think about colours too much but can get lost in the patterns and form.

Other days I like to let myself go and paint something like an owl which is messier and much more random

but I have to stand back and see whats working. The paint lands on the paper, sometimes it's right other times it isn't.

Some days I like to paint flowers or bees. Then others the Devon countryside gets me again and I am back to the lanes or the trees . I am influenced by the weather or a wildlife documentary I have watched and the more I paint the more I want to paint. So what I like to paint most really does depend on my mood. What really matters is I do them justice, being to get them how I want them ( as much as possible ) gives me a lot of joy. 

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