The Voyage Painting

Born 1943, Stoke on Trent I am a figurative painter who gave up scientific research and teaching to paint full-time. From 1963 to 1985, I studied and taught Science and Mathematics and did almost no art. In 1986, I gave up Science teaching to paint full-time. For me, the history of art is more about the history of painting than the development of new media. I joined the Stuckists in 2001 and am co-founder of the Wrexham Stuckists and author of the website www.stuckismwales.co.uk. In 2004, I helped hang the Stuckists Punk Victorian exhibition at the Walker. My pictures are inspired by imagination and memories of my experiences. Some are about my childhood in N Ireland and others are about the modern world. I think painting may be able to reveal something of a world lying beyond the familiar world of time and space. I make many pencil sketches of ideas for paintings and it may take years before I feel able to turn a sketch into a painting. I don’t like to use photographs, because they may include detail which is not relevant to the true subject of the picture. I am torn between realism and reducing things to more simple forms. I paint because there is nothing else that I want to do.