Hunter Valley Balloon Ride Painting

I am a self taught artist and have been painting for almost 30 years on and off as a hobby. I am sharing my creations for the first time. I always enjoyed the freedom of expression that painting gives and capturing the world through my eyes. My paintings, like any artist, are a personal expression of things that I love to see or how I would love to see them. Colour is something thatI have always found comfort and joy in, so I guess it was only natural that when I started to experiment in my art, all those years ago with pastels, then it was just a natural expression of that joy, and so I included a full palette of colour in most of my paintings. This has just naturally progressed from my water colours to my use of Acrylics...........whatever the medium, the colour range has been a constant. Before I took up painting at 28 years of age and having come from a disciplinary, scholarly and scientific background in my life up until this point, I could only see things in a 'scientific/disciplined' way. That is, I only ever saw the sky as 'blue', the grass and leaves on a tree as 'green' and all shadows as 'black/grey'. Painting opened my eyes and my mind to what I had been missing and blind to. That very first time, after only a few months of taking up painting, whilst walking and seeing ALL the colours in the canopy of a tree, I was simply transfixed to the ground and overwhelmed by the beauty I had been missing all of those years. I simply cried and thought of the paintings of Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley and many, many other artists that inspired me and I had enjoyed. Painting simply made me see the world as it really was and not what I thought it was. My paintings are an extension, indeed an exaggeration of this, as it simply is my way of expressing the beautiful life I have led and just some of the those beautiful things I have experienced. I hope you enjoy them and thank you for taking the time to read my biography. Joe ;-)