The dark winter months have put landscape painting on the back burner, giving me the opportunity to develop some ideas using the portrait, particularly using watercolour. There are many papers available to use and this year I have been using a hand made Indian paper. More absorbent than my regular paper it's an exciting material to use. Each sheet is unique with odd imperfections and peculiarities which makes for an individual work of art. Getting an animated, interesting portrait is always a challenge. Achieving a likeness is one thing but the main job I think is to get an interesting painting. Masters of the art I admire are John Sargent, Euan Uglow and the sombre tones and dynamic paint handling of Kyffin Williams make wonderful images. My own portraits are concerned with composition, light and movement and watercolour has a particular quality I enjoy when dealing with this subject.