“If it is true that we paint what we know, then I am drawn to paint rural and wilderness Ontario — meadows, trees, rocks, water.  But these familiar elements of the landscape are never the subject of a painting.  It sounds a cliché, but it’s true — light is always the subject of a painting.   I am happiest when I am painting outside — plein air — and pushing paint around on a 9 x 12 panel.  This typically takes me to the Headwaters area NW of Toronto, i.e. Albion Hills, Caledon, Mulmur, and up towards the Big Head River valley.  Further afield I like to canoe into Algonquin, Temagami and Killarney — which I have been doing pretty much all my life.”

What are you working on at the moment?​

“I am in the studio this week working up watercolour sketches from a trip to Newfoundland last summer.   Newfoundland is such a fantastic place to paint — those big strong shapes and pearly even light.  It’s sad that many novice painters give up on watercolour because they say they find it too difficult, and there is some merit to that. But in truth, watercolour at it’s best, is active, alive and has to be given the freedom to do it’s own thing. Painting with watercolour is more a partnership than a command/control thing. And I guess that frightens a lot of folks who are just learning.  After all these years of watercolouring, I still struggle to find a consistent approach.  With watercolour  you want to let the natural flow of the paint take over — working with whatever those early washes give you.  I still believe that watercolour is the most exciting — and certainly the most expressive medium in which to work. “