About eight years ago I was inspired to have a go at portrait painting with palette knives after seeing some very impressive work by Welsh artist Kyffin Williams. I draw and paint myself often – sometimes from life, sometimes from photos – so I decided to experiment on my own likeness. It’s an obvious way to brush up on your skills. I’m a readily accessible life model and therefore have total freedom of expression to explore knife painting techniques without the fear of upsetting anyone but myself. It’s also cheap and you always have access to a patient model.
The self-portrait opposite was done after I had been practising for
