Your paintings often focus on a particular time of day - ‘The Midday Sky at Southwold’, ‘Daybreak over Southwold Harbour’ - Do you have a favourite time of day to paint?

I tend to always paint in the afternoons in my studio. I use some photographic references to create the paintings in order to get the buildings and other features correct, but much is from memory, and the cloud formations etc are ‘designed’ to support the composition. Most of my Southwold paintings are set around the middle of the day as I’m trying to convey the holiday atmosphere when the light is clearest and everyone is out and about. I have recently become interested in doing early morning paintings, but still keeping them bright and evocative of the coming day. Painting the sun is challenging because of it’s sheer dominance of the composition. I think whatever else is in the painting, the sun will always be the centre of interest.

A lot of your paintings are of Southwold, what draws you to paint this subject?

Southwold is a great subject, especially the seafront. There is the gently rising slopes above the beach huts, up to the cliff top houses and the central feature of the lighthouse, which makes it’s crowning statement above the other features. The beach huts create an “underline” to the lighthouse which further enhances the composition. Above all this, the big sky, with the cloud shapes which direct the eye down, once again to the lighthouse and seafront buildings. Another version I do, features the pier extending out to the right, making a nice counterpoint to the lighthouse.

Southwold Harbour is good because it offers many viewpoints and has multiple features with boats and buildings, any of which can form the centre of interest. The river can be used to lead the eye into the centre of the picture.

Tell us a bit more about your journey to becoming an artist. Did you study art or are you self taught?

I went to art college and after a foundation year, did two more years training to be a graphic designer. On leaving college, I had several years working in London as a graphic designer, before being drawn into management. With a young family and mortgage to support, the financial incentive was tempting. I was reluctant at first but found I really enjoyed this new role. After many years doing this, in the end at a senior level, I realised that although I was still working in a creative environment, I was doing very little creative work myself. I started painting in my spare time, and was encouraged to exhibit my work by colleagues. I was always interested in maritime history and therefore many of my early paintings were seascapes and coastal in nature. I started selling work, in my locality of Essex, on the South Coast, and in London with the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries. When I retired 9 years ago and moved to Suffolk, my creative work expanded to include landscape, life drawing and painting across different media.

Do you have a routine to set you up for the day?

There is no fixed routine for the day, but generally I tend to do domestic chores early in the day, as well as dealing with admin duties relating to the Chediston Art Group, an amateur art group of enthusiastic artists who produce all manner of varied work when we meet on a Wednesday morning for art and a chat. I am also on the committee that runs The Southwold Art Circle. The afternoon is my painting time. As to my working methods on the Southwold paintings, I generally “block in” the main areas first to get the tonal balance and range established as well as the colour bias in the sense that is the palette to be warm or cool. I generally establish the sky first, as this is at least 2/3 of the area of the painting and will set time of day, direction of light, and colour palette. I spend much of the time determining the “shape” of the cloud formations, which although they appear random, form an integral supporting structure of the composition. The detail work of beach huts, buildings and human figures is usually done towards the end of the work, but I nearly always have to go back to make final adjustments.

Where is your studio and what elements make it a satisfying place to work?

My studio is a converted brick built ex-garage, with a loft that sits in our back garden. It is reasonably sized with good light and is filled with clutter like most studios are, much of it very old creative work and artefacts that I have accumulated throughout my life. It is quiet and secluded and I am able to concentrate on the work for hours at a time.

What was the last exhibition you saw that inspired you?

I used to regularly visit the London galleries when I lived in Essex. I have always found the RSMA exhibitions inspiring, partly because of my interest in marine art and partly because I admire the work of many of the artists who exhibit there, and marvel in particular at the great technique of the many watercolourists in that society. I dabble at times in the somewhat challenging medium of watercolour, with it’s uncompromising demands of bravery from the artists who are it’s adherents. My preferred mediums of acrylic and oils, which although have their own challenges, offer the artist a lot of control, and the ability to go back and forth over a piece of work until it reaches a satisfying conclusion.

What artist(s) do you like at the moment?

I am of course a great admirer of Turner, being the great master of light and atmosphere, but there are many modern landscape artists whose work features on Instagram, who are also very inspirational in their use of light and colour. I am always interested in pushing the colour palette as mush as possible to enhance the effects of light in all my work, and using the interplay of very light and shaded areas within a painting to create drama and mood.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

The advice I would give to my younger self is to concentrate and practice more than I did as a younger artist. There have been many distractions in my life, which I don’t regret, as it has been a very varied and fulfilling life in many ways. My life has been one of contradictions, from the quiet, contemplative, sometimes necessarily solitary life of the artist which I love, and the busy, crowded world of people, systems, management and crisis management, which I also loved and thrived in.