Contemporary Landscape Painting : In the Studio

The alchemy of painting is a real thing, but only occurs with the persistence the painter gives to their paints and the canvas. Going into the studio on a daily basis, becomes almost ritualistic, and obsessive. This is a necessity if anything is to be achieved, on a creative, expressive level. As the Welsh painter Peter Prendergast says: “Painting is not a therapy to make one relax. It should be as if your nerves are tingling as if you are walking a tightrope.”

It’s very important to have a good contemporary studio practice, and to make this space an interesting place to work in. When you are immersed in painting, it’s difficult to ‘come up for air’ at times. The compulsive nature of this business overrides any sense of logical timescale. Let’s face it; this is the place where imaginations meet reality!

The smell of oils and turps in the Studio is intoxicating to me, and is one of the reasons I work in this media.

I love the depth of colour and the way oils lend themselves to achieve multiple layers of paint on the canvas.