I studied in art colleges at the end of the 1960s early 1970s and have taught art all my life. To that end, I have needed to embrace all art forms, two and three dimensional, lens-based media, conceptual, practical, serious and whimsical. But the last great masters of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century are those that I admire most. Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Matisse have been major influences upon my physical approach to painting. Of course alongside others, too many to name, both from the past and contemporary.