This sketch was made during a month-long sailing trip with my father. On the way back to England we pulled into Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands). One morning I found myself in a quiet alley and sat down to sketch. I didn’t know it at the time, but in a few months my dad would no longer be with us. The shadow implies that someone had once been there, but had just walked away and was no longer visible.

I love water. I find it unendingly beautiful. Water in all its forms—lakes, ponds, streams, waterfalls, rivers and oceans, fountains in small villages in Spain or France, coral lagoons in the islands of the South Pacific—almost always brings a sense of peace, reflection and rest. When light and water meet, the spectacular happens.

Why is going into an art gallery the last thing the average person wants to do? Is the problem with the public, who are just not “into art” anymore? Is it the galleries, who make people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome? Is the fault with the artists, who produce work that is inaccessible to the average person? How can we show our work in a more creative way that invites more people in and makes them feel welcome?

Steampunk HQ is fun, crazy and intriguing and a little bit scary. Is it art? Who knows? It’s a futuristic vision of 19th century Victorian England “gone mad”. Its significant influences were H.G. Wells and his time machine, Jules Verne and “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” and Alan Moore's super heroes in “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”. Futuristic technologies are taken back into the “ornate and opulent world of grand fashion and gentlemanly manners”, a future with a dark side of grime and decay. It’s like one of those crazy Victorian science experiments (think Frankenstein gone wrong)!

Handprint is the most comprehensive resource for watercolor painters on the internet! It makes available huge amounts of practical information for the aspiring artist who wants to learn about all aspects of watercolor painting: papers, brushes, paints, "color theory," painting techniques, art instructional books and more. Bruce MacEvoy says, “I created these materials for painters who are weary of art marketing hype, inaccurate art theory and the numbing workshop mentality that invites you to learn somebody else's "winning" painting style in ten easy minutes.

My first encounter with aboriginal art left me amazed at their colours, textures and abstract patterns. Soon after arriving in Arnhem Land, a remote part of northern Australia that feels a million miles from the cultural and artistic life of Melbourne or Sydney, I discovered an art centre that highlights and promotes art by local Yolngu artists. Sitting in silence I watched the aboriginal artists at work. I realised that there is much I don’t understand about the complex culture and story-telling of the aboriginal people. And I wondered how a people with such a long history could produce art that looks so “modern” and which reminded me of much of today’s contemporary abstract art.

The Painter’s Keys is a “worldwide community of artists from over 115 countries who visit the website for information, inspiration, artist advice, friendship and connectivity”. Robert Genn started emailing five fellow artists. Soon, requests trickled in to be added to the list, and he came to understand the need for a Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Artists—a worldwide community of creative people with a lot of the same concerns.

Research shows that people spend as little as eight seconds looking at each painting in a museum or art gallery! Taking the time to slow down and really look at art triggers a curiosity to learn more. There is something special about investing the time it takes to engage with a painting you might normally walk right by.

Finally finding somewhere to park on a side street, we bought a ticket to visit Cézanne’s atelier. What I experienced, sitting in his studio was, for me a highly emotional experience. Cézanne spent most of his life painting landscapes, still-lifes and portraits in solitude and obscurity in Aix-en-Provence. Called a "lunatic" by fellow townspeople and and known as a loner, this studio is where he did most of his painting…

In 1930, attracted by the light and extreme isolation, Salvador Dali and his wife Gala bought a a small fisherman’s shack, just steps from the Mediterranean sea, with no heat, no electricity and no running water. Dali lived and worked here for the next 52 years. We had been told that getting tickets to see this house would be completely impossible at such short notice. We set off by car anyway, determined to see the “Casa Dali” for ourselves.

We all have dozens of conversations a day. Most are instantly forgotten. A few are fuelled by vision and purpose, with people who have life experience and wisdom. Recently I had two such conversations. They were both so significant that I went straight home and wrote everything down. I didn’t want to miss anything from these conversations! They changed the direction of my art!