Paper

Most of my work is done on 140lb watercolour paper, of various brands such as Hahnemuhle, Fabriano, Arches, Saunders, Canson, Bockingford… you can see I am international in my paper choices! It will therefore vary in texture and colour slightly, but never in quality as I only use the best. I was lucky enough to inherit recently a large quantity of quality paper from an artist friend who died, and this is one of the things that has focused me into developing my shop.

Paints

As far as paint itself goes, I have a basic Winsor and Newton palette, containing all the standard colours, and for many years I painted with the traditional English limited palette: Ultramarine Blue, Winsor Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Rose, Naples Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Paynes Grey. With these colours you can mix practically every colour you will ever need, but about 20 years ago I met an Australian artist, Hugh Brading, who introduced me to synthetic transparent colours, which transformed my art. I began using Quinacridone Gold, Aussie Green Gold, Dioxazine Purple, Transparent Yellow … and I am constantly looking out now for new pigments to enhance what I do. But I still rely on the old traditional palette as the backbone of my work.