Paintings made at Leeds University with Paul Gopal Chowdhury using teaching methods traceable through Euan Uglow , Sir William Coldstream & Sickert back to nineteenth century French art. This tradition emphasizes "determined visual relations" including careful colour comparisons, setting observed keys, measuring relative to fixed points and connecting areas of colour to make surfaces.

The approach often produces this faceted, luminous look. It may look artificial, but it's a crucial learning process, helping the student to construct images connected to the world through perception. The reward of this observational discipline, as in the natural sciences, is a clearer grasp of reality, in this case visual reality. It also becomes easier to understand how what you see is connected to how you work.

What a student does with this constructive connection to the world is another matter. For my part, I was struck by the feeling of discovery this brought to painting, and by the confidence that clear methods gave me to paint all sorts of things.

All paintings in private collections except top right, which is for sale.