I felt the need to get back to painting and I thought the best way was to start drawing, so I enrolled in a life drawing class. I soon discovered that people made very interesting subjects and I am still surprised that I had never discovered it before.

I had been living with dialysis for three years or so, and the new kidney felt like a reprieve, a new gift of life. I felt alive again and I guess that has had an effect on my use of colour.

I have never subscribed to the Dirty Pallet school of painting.

I have to experiment with methods and I'm trying to find an authentic way of making an equivalent of the living, breathing person within the limits of a single picture.

Painting is seen as picture making, the making of an art object, something that can stand on its own.

When I look at some of my old work, the pieces I find most interesting are the ones with people in them.

I tried to learn the violin for a while.