They say you never forget a good teacher. I have been lucky to have been taught by several gifted teachers: Miss Erskine (I never did get to know what her first name was) at Sullivan School, who tried her best to instill in me the art of looking, and who gave me a good grounding in drawing; Wendy Jelbert, at West Dean College, who showed me how different media could be used together to capture the nuaces of light and shade; and Geoffrey Vivas, also at West Dean, who taught me the importance of being a witness to nature, and who gave me such enduring encouragement to express myself.
To all of these, my heartfelt thanks.
My Mother, Elizabeth, was the first to encourage me to paint. I had been a keen scribbler from an early age, and my Father, Victor, often drew cars for me. I still remember these drawings: long, flowing shapes, with large headlights and swept-back rears. My efforts were not quite so graceful or polished!
Still, it was my Mother who first encouraged me to try painting, buying me my first watercolour set at the age of, oh, I guess it was seven or so. We travelled to Loch Swilly, in Donegal, and my first attempt to capture the beauty of that countryside, with its misty mountains and wide expanses of loch, began. That was over 40 years ago, but I still feel the same way about painting as I did then.