Sometimes I just want to sit and write at a clean table and not get paint all over my hands.

If you can see a world within a portrait I would be happy with that. I don't want to tell the story with a painting, though. I'm trying to get away from the story- from the beginning and the ending.

Some of my work is very instinctive, some of my favourite things I've ever done are just two minute sketches, nothing is better when you get it like that so quick, then other work takes months.

I like to listen to a lot of classical music when I'm painting, the most simplistic stuff I can find. I like simple piano.

Sometimes I just want to sit and write at a clean table and not get paint all over my hands.

I sometimes use music as way of getting back to a certain time, dredging up stuff from the past and putting it down on canvas.

I don't think of myself as a rebellious artist, a lot of people have said that about me because I came from Cornwall and choose to paint people in what they considered to be an urban style instead of Cornish landscapes. I've never agreed with them. It's bullshit.