I turn people's special memories into paintings to treasure; I draw and paint pictures to inspire and delight; and I teach people that they really CAN draw and paint. That’s because I’m both an artist and an art educator based in Southport in north-west England.
As both an artist and an art educator I get the best of both worlds! I get to draw and paint a myriad of subjects in any media that either I or my commissioner desire from portraits to landscapes, flowers and still life to people and the places where they live. Having had the enjoyment of creating those works of art, I then know that when they are sold, they go on to give years of pleasure to their new owners. Then I also get to see all my students blossom and progress as they learn how to create their own unique works of art at the same time as they use their art to de-stress and forget about the problems of the world around them.
I was so lucky that as a teenager I got a place at art school and was taught to draw and paint properly by the most inspirational artist and teacher one could ever wish for: 46 years later, I’m still drawing and painting, and still loving it. I’m also still using his teaching methods to help my students to realise that they, too, really can draw and paint.
Discovering why those methods worked became my first degree dissertation topic and then a life-long interest. In a nutshell, it is switching you from working in the logical, linear, left hemisphere of the brain that we spend most of the day functioning in across to the creative, non-sequential, non-verbal right hemisphere of the brain. In this mode, time can fly or stand still, it is as relaxing as it is stimulating, and you become so much more aware of the colours, shapes and patterns surrounding you.
I love operating in right hemisphere mode, and I love seeing students make that switch from left to right – you can actually see it both in their general behaviour and also in the difference in the marks they are making in their art work. It is fascinating!!
Prompted by the Covid closures and wanting to reach a wider audience than just face-to-face classes could allow I put my teaching techniques into a series of online programmes called “You CAN draw and paint”.
Happily, I am now also able to go back to teaching face-to-face classes and have weekly classes in West Lancashire. There is a taught watercolour painting class in Ormskirk where students follow me step-by-step from preparatory drawing to finished painting; this is ideal for beginners or returners. I also have a tutored class in Scarisbrick for intermediate and advanced artists where they work on their own projects in any medium they wish with my help, guidance, suggestions or tuition.
You can also book online private one-to-one tutorial sessions with me.
So, whether it is online or face-to-face, I am happy to meet my new students in a virtual or real art community as they discover that they CAN draw and paint, and meet my new patrons and buyers via the SAA Community.
Acrylics, Brusho, Charcoal, Drawing, Oil pastel, Oils, Pastel, Pen And Wash, Pencil, Watercolour
En plein air, Flowers, Landscape, Landscape or Woodland Scene, Portraiture, Still Life, street scene, Townscape or Streetscene, Waterscene; Boats or Seascape
