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I'm Ian Holtedahl-Finlay...but you may find that I still sign some of my work as Ian Finlay as my now double-barrelled name doesn't always fit on to the bottom corner of the canvas!

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It's All About Me....
 

Born in London way back in the last century - millenium even - I grew up with a love of art and honestly cannot remember not drawing something or other.

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Early pictures would often be of aeroplanes (I loved building Airfix kits), animals (we had rabbits, goldfish, hamsters, guinea pigs, a tortoise and a dog - quite a menagerie!), birds (especially birds of prey - I have always loved them!) or cars (I was once a full-on petrolhead!).

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My father had a talent for art and I remember him giving me some tutorial from time to time. I was encouraged by all my family throughout my life. Perhaps that's the difference between me and some other people; we can all draw, but at some point someone says to you, 'that's not very good' and you believe them and stop! Fortunately for me, either I was too pig-headed to listen or was so engrossed in the experience that I carried on...

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I do remember sitting trying to paint in oils for the first time. My dad was nearby working on a different view. After a while we came together to look at what we'd done. I saw my dad's work and promptly realised that my effort wasn't up to scratch...but what was I to expect? It is said that to become an expert at anything you need to put in at least 10,000 hours. My dad was so much further towards that magic number than me but I didn't realise it then.

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Art formed the mainstay of my chosen subjects at school and although I gained O levels in the core subjects, art-related studies backed them all up. The same with my A levels. Anyway, they were good enough to get me into art school where I learned a lot. I'd never really been taught or instructed in art other than the mentoring from my dad but he had died a year before so it was all new. Even then, there wasn't any tuition in how to paint...

Mediums & Style

Oil painting

Watercolour painting

Graphite sketches

Figurative realism

Additional Related Skills

Sports & Event Photography

Design (Adobe Creative Suite)

Brand Development

Product Development (Marine Sportswear)

For that, I would wait a number of years and a time in my life where I explored more. I taught myself to paint over a two or three year period and sailed (semi-professionally) at the same time. Through this sport, I received my first commissions and for the next ten years or so I kept my head above water through both painting and racing along with occasional yacht deliveries, which also expanded my horizons and took me to places I doubt I would have otherwise had the good fortune to experience.
 
In 2010 I met my wife (again...). We'd known each other in the 1990's and more than really liked each other but for whatever reason at the time, our fling didn't develop into anything more substantial...That is until we saw each other in the very same place where we'd first met well over a decade before - serendipity...? I don't know. What I did know was that I didn't want her to get away again and I later found out that she had been kind of thinking the same thing. (Wo-Hoooo!)
 
Before too long we were living together along with our daughter and a couple of rabbits to care for. I knew that the effects of the previous couple of years (some bad choices on my part) meant that I needed to find regular, secure income. So painting went on the backburner for a few years. There was an occasional commission but I was working away from home at that time so I didn't find the time to concentrate on it properly. When we got married (in 2011) we decided that my wife's wonderful, classic Norwegian surname ought not to be lost so we chose to join our names together. It would make signing everything more of a challenge, especially trying to fit the new name onto the bottom right-hand corner of a painting!
 
In January of 2016 I decided one night that instead of settling down with a book before I went to sleep, I'd try doing a quick sketch of our recently acquired puppy. This little drawing worked out okay and I gave it to my wife. The next night I drew a different one of him and gave it to my daughter. That was the start of a little project I came to call my 'Sketch Before Bedtime'. In doing so I had re-ignited my passion for art in a big way and since 2016 I've spent many evenings doing A6 and A5-sized sketches of all manner of subjects that inspire or interest me.
 
I've uploaded these sketches onto my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts using the hashtags #SketchBeforeBedtime, #PostcardPictures and #SketchBeforeSailing (for the few I managed after waking at dawn during Cowes Week!). These have generated a small following and I've been somewhat overwhelmed by the positive response from friends and others who had either forgotten that this was my calling or had never known.
 
It has also brought a few commission inquiries as well. Most of these have been drawings but you'll also see a number of paintings that I've done. Some in watercolour and others in oil, these are often commissions and hopefully show you the quality of my work. 
 
So now I thought it was time to get myself a website again and see if I can make this passion work for me...properly this time, taking lessons from my previous 'failure' to become a fully professional artist, able to support a family from my love of art, painting and sketching. Either way, I will always love using this skill. Whether it was something I was born with or have worked hard to develop, I have grown to enjoy sharing the work that I produce...
 
2010 - present
2010 - present
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