Beginning Painting

I was born in Anerley, Penge, UK in the year of the Rooster. All the rest of my family are Snakes.... :-) I've loved art all my life - I'm a compulsive doodler. I hope that I have now, through my artworks, taken doodling to a whole new level ;-) The main inspiration for my work is early Celtic. One day, many moons ago (more than I care to admit to), I saw a reproduction of a page from the Lindisfarne Gospels. I thought: "Wow! How do you do that?". So I set about trying to find out. Doodling alone can only take you so far. There comes a time when you have to seek out those who know more than you, and this led me to The Prince's School of Traditional Arts in London. I did look at all the usual art colleges, but we weren't really singing from the same hymn sheet, shall we say. At the PSTA I met many wonderful, unique, learned and inspiring people - such as Prof Emeritus Keith Critchlow, Dr Martin Lings, Dr Nassar Mansour, Aidan Hart and many others. Through their teachings and example, I gained new understanding of art, life, the universe and everything ;-) So I now probably fit in with standard art colleges even less than before. Is that good or bad? My paintings are entirely hand made and are executed mostly in egg tempera, acrylic and gold leaf on paper, calfskin vellum, glass or gesso panel. I make my own quills and egg tempera paint, regularly raiding local Welsh beaches for shells to use as paint palettes (they work well and they're free - what more can I say?). I do not, however, grow my own cows or make my own vellum (very yukky process). I am very happy to let someone else do that bit. Each painting can take up to four weeks to complete. Most of that time is spent on drawing out the design, using a set of Victorian compasses, a sharp pencil, a ruler and lots of tracing paper. I live in Burry Port, South West Wales with Himself and our large, dribbly dog.