#PostcardPictures #SketchBeforeBedtime #SketchBeforeSailing & more...

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...