ArtistsNetwork.com 27O
n my fi rst trip to the Greek Islands, as a student, in 1973, I took
with me a large canvas bag of oil painting equipment. I loved the
experience of painting abroad as a way to soak up the new visual
stimuli, but the resulting oil paintings were a problem. I couldn’t
pack them up and move on to the next island until they were dry.
Some paintings stuck together, and I didn’t know what to do with the remaining
blobs of paint on my makeshift palette.
In spite of this, I loved the painting challenge of trying to pin down the sunlight
and shadows. A few years later, I went back to Greece to live, and that’s when I
turned to watercolor as a way to express this interest. In the years since, whether
I’m at home in England or traveling abroad, watercolor has been my medium of
choice for capturing the excitement of light and the landscape.ABOVE
The grid of shadows seen on
the left side of The Greenhouse
and Peppers, England (water-
color on paper, 22½x30) form
an important part of the
composition. They follow the
same laws of perspective as
the glazing bars that cast them.
RIGHT
The inspiration for Number One,
The Royal Crescent, London,
England (watercolor on paper,
15x11) was the subtle interplay of
shadows and the architectural
details of the building facade.