21 Haddington Road
Plymouth Devon PL2 1RR
I paint with watercolour for both my work as an illustrator and my expression as an artist. It is the medium that keeps me interested and excited to stretch the next piece of paper. Sometimes a painting requires multiple layers of watercolour washes before it is finished. Other times a painting comes about more directly, more intuitively ... without a prescribed direction.
For commissioned illustrations, the process involves careful observation and planning ... working out the composition in lights and darks with a pencil drawing first. Along with client changes and feedback, it also allows me to see where the white of the paper is going to be preserved.
When it comes to my personal work, I am inspired by the incremental changes that occur in nature. Often unnoticed but fundamentally transformational, there is a poetic beauty in shifting light and colour, and the ephemeral nature of all material forms. My response to this beauty is what informs my work.
Six wonderful painters whose watercolours inspire me ~ past and present:
Winslow Homer
John Singer Sargent
Elizabeth Blackadder
Edward Wesson
Lizbeth Zwerger
Wendy Artin
