An artist has to paint what he or she is passionate about - and I am passionate about beauty and emotion. For me there is nothing else in nature that brings these two together quite like the female form. My dear friend Gabriele Rigon (in my opinion the world's best photographer of the female form) creates many of the source images I use for my artworks. Over the years he has become 'my soul-mate-in-art' and I have had many long conversations with him, philosophising and trying to define 'sensuality' - the fusion of beauty and emotion presented in a sensitive and subtle way that we can all relate to without feeling threatened or intimidated by. There will be a certain element in one of Gabriele's photographs that fires my imagination. A distant gaze, a sorrowful brow or sparkle in the eye that catches hold of my heart and in an instant I have made up the story in my mind. Gabriele tells his own story his way in his photograph - I have seen a quite different tale and am compelled to paint this for you. An old boss of mine coined the phrase "Technology is the slave, mankind is the master" This is so true in my art! I use what I will enigmatically describe as a 21st century version of the 'camera obscura' to transfer the detail I have seen in a photograph to canvas. I will spend hours mixing paint shades before I paint a single brush stroke. At this point my studio resembles a chemist's laboratory! My preferred medium is 'vinyl' - much like 'acrylic' in composition except for one single atom! That atom makes a whole world of difference to the finished painting. Vinyl dries with a natural soft matt finish, this quality along with the cooling influence of the 'trademark blue' that I so often use, gives my paintings the softness and almost velvety texture that my subjects deserve. I paint from dark to light and eventually my canvas is covered. At this point I usually celebrate with a beer or two. As I wind down, I will tweak little areas that start to call out to me. This fine-tuning takes days often weeks! At last the softness, subtlety, sensuality and emotion I have been striving to portray is finished and another piece of my heart and soul is ready to be shown to the world...

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