I have a studio in an old smithy in the Cotswolds. This ancient place makes it a perfect setting to work in as I like to think of it as having been a working place for many centuries before me.

My inspiration derives from the surrounding countryside, my travels to the Umbrian hills and from the dramatic beauty of the far north of Scotland to the north coast of Cornwall – it is these very different landscapes that form the bedrock of my work.

I usually begin work using my drawings – sometimes quick scribbles of a subject that has captured my imagination in some way. I can then work this into a finished painting. I need to feel the excitement that comes from a mixed palette of colour and tones that are in harmony with each other. It is very often the appeal of…