Gold Hill, graphite - detail

The work itself begins with a line drawing, created directly from being in situ at the location, and using a light and dark impression sketch, some photographic images where appropriate, and, importantly, sketches of individual features.

When through these sittings the work approaches the final stage of completion, I find it important to return to the all-important question of definition: namely depth and the interplay of light and shade (the two are inter-related). For this reason, the details of the work complete, I will then return to the crucial matter of the impression of the location gained from being physically there in situ.

Much can indeed be achieved with colour, and through paint (ready-made, or mixed by the artist), but for myself, appreciating as I do the beauty and the visually evocative nature of monochrome (or tones of a single colour) works, the graphite pencil is peerless in its adaptability, and suitability to my subjects. An exception to this rule exists in my acrylic works, which combine rich colour and geometric patterns to provide ideal decorative art in a minimalist, contemporary style.

The importance of the successful depiction of texture (second only to mastery of monochrome techniques in capturing the feeling of depth and the 3D) also features highly in my creative technique, and for this reason I have found as well that the graphite pencil has no equal.