I am doing it because, it is a good discipline to return to every now and again to get the eye in, to really ‘look’, to refresh and take a break from other work etc. (I suppose it is a discipline, akin to musicians doing their scales or artists doing life drawing).. I find it remarkably calming and absorbing - almost therapeutic and I also like to enrich the simplest of subjects in the way I portray them or maybe just through the act of painting them?

Still life is readily available to artists and the intimacy of everyday objects has great appeal but the subject has not always been ‘everyday’.  Still life is a genre with a rich and varied history including those magnificent Dutch 17^th century still life's that spoke of their owners ‘wealth’ with bulging tables of game or huge vases of tulips or spoke of their ‘culture’ with pictures of scientific objects or books.  The opposite extreme is my hero, Chardin (1699 – 1779), whose simple imagery proves that the subject does not have to be grand or sublime to evoke feeling or prove aesthetic or technical ability. I especially like his use of dark backgrounds.  I also admire Morandi (1890 – 1964) for those same pure qualities and his sensitivity of tone. And I admire the watercolour painter Leslie Worth PPRWS (1923 – 2009) for his technical skill and directness. 

I am also doing it, on a practical level, as it will provide small accessible paintings for an exhibition in which I am trying to raise funds and awareness for the Artists’ General Benevolent Institute (AGBI) -  I am the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours’ (RI) steward for the AGBI this year (until March 2011)."