Hi everyone. Welcome to my website.
I am very fortunate to have a good friend, Richard Robinson, a fellow painter but also a computer expert. He has been able to modernise this site and improve the general layout. Hopefully, he has also revitalised my enthusiasm so that I will now be far more diligent keeping it up-to-date than I have been in the past!
A brief history of my life and painting career
My urge to draw began early in my childhood and continued throughout my school years. I then completed a year of study in a tertiary level art school in Wellington, New Zealand before being employed in the commercial art field. However, I soon discovered it was not the type of art I wanted to do as a career and so I went to training college to become a teacher.
Six years of teaching later, I realised that my part-time painting hobby had become my first love, so with my wife’s encouragement, I went full-time painting. That was way back in 1972. Since then, I've concentrated on improving my work with many one-man and group exhibitions, along with many teaching sessions with art groups in New Zealand, Australia, and the USA.
After trying watercolours, acrylics, and oils over the years, I’ve discovered that oils are the best choice for me. I love the creamy texture and the flow of the brushes on the stretched canvas surface, the vast range of beautiful colours, and the fact that I can control the paint’s drying time – from an hour or two, to many days – whatever I prefer. Also, unlike other paint mediums, extremes of hot and cold don't make too much difference to the working qualities of oils.
In 2007, my wife and I shifted to Glenorchy where I now spend my time painting and teaching in the stunning mountains and valleys that surround us. I enjoy taking small groups of people out into my favourite spots from time to time where I teach them how to paint ‘plein air,’ (in the great outdoors), a very different experience for those who have been studio – only painters in the past. If you're interested, have a look at my "workshops" page to see how I arrange them.
More recently, a friend introduced me to the idea of creating teaching DVD's - filming myself as I paint and talk through what I'm doing on the canvas and the reasons why. Very challenging I’ve discovered! Editing the information from three cameras is not easy but I hope my efforts are improving and that if you download or buy my discs through this website ( details on the DVD's page ), you will enjoy and learn from them.
Hi everyone. Welcome to my website.
I am very fortunate to have a good friend, Richard Robinson, a fellow painter but also a computer expert. He has been able to modernise this site and improve the general layout. Hopefully, he has also revitalised my enthusiasm so that I will now be far more diligent keeping it up-to-date than I have been in the past!
A brief history of my life and painting career
My urge to draw began early in my childhood and continued throughout my school years. I then completed a year of study in a tertiary level art school in Wellington, New Zealand before being employed in the commercial art field. However, I soon discovered it was not the type of art I wanted to do as a career and so I went to training college to become a teacher.
Six years of teaching later, I realised that my part-time painting hobby had become my first love, so with my wife’s encouragement, I went full-time painting. That was way back in 1972. Since then, I've concentrated on improving my work with many one-man and group exhibitions, along with many teaching sessions with art groups in New Zealand, Australia, and the USA.
After trying watercolours, acrylics, and oils over the years, I’ve discovered that oils are the best choice for me. I love the creamy texture and the flow of the brushes on the stretched canvas surface, the vast range of beautiful colours, and the fact that I can control the paint’s drying time – from an hour or two, to many days – whatever I prefer. Also, unlike other paint mediums, extremes of hot and cold don't make too much difference to the working qualities of oils.
In 2007, my wife and I shifted to Glenorchy where I now spend my time painting and teaching in the stunning mountains and valleys that surround us. I enjoy taking small groups of people out into my favourite spots from time to time where I teach them how to paint ‘plein air,’ (in the great outdoors), a very different experience for those who have been studio – only painters in the past. If you're interested, have a look at my "workshops" page to see how I arrange them.
More recently, a friend introduced me to the idea of creating teaching DVD's - filming myself as I paint and talk through what I'm doing on the canvas and the reasons why. Very challenging I’ve discovered! Editing the information from three cameras is not easy but I hope my efforts are improving and that if you download or buy my discs through this website ( details on the DVD's page ), you will enjoy and learn from them.
