Philosophy

With all these dogs and children my time is at a premium so I need to be very disciplined about what I do when and what extra things I take on.

I like to be involved with my children and their activities but I have to be very strong and not say yes to everything.  So I occasionally help out with things but try as hard as possible to take a back seat.  However, the tasks I take on often have a craft associated basis and it can be very stimulating working with children, they have no inhibitions about what things should look like and often come up with some really talented ideas which I have compunction about borrowing!  Plus it’s good to take some time out from normal activities.

I try to keep to a strict timetable and set aside days for painting when I have to ignore housework and other commitments.  I take my dogs out working everyday and as a lot of my work is inspired by nature I find I pick up a lot of ideas along the way, this also gives me good thinking time to work out ideas and compositions in my head.  I always carry my camera and snap photos of anything I find stimulating.

Because my time is at a premium I do a lot of work from photographs, as my work tends to have a surreal leaning, I take elements from different photographs and style them to my work.  However, it is always a good challenge and fun to be asked to do a specific landscape for someone.  It always leads me on to trying new techniques and ideas.

I find my work is constantly changing and what I am painting now may have completely changed in six months, but for me that is the fun of art, there should be no boundaries.