TONY HINCHCLIFEE

"I have always loved the sense of escapism that comes with creating artwork. I am passionate about exploring my creativity, constantly looking at developing my techniques so I can keep that feeling of energy within my work. When someone is emotionally moved by looking at my artwork that is a big motivation for me as I have always liked to please people through my painting.

"My preferred medium is oil paint; I do sometimes create an acrylic underpainting first as I really like the way the oil paint behaves when applied over acrylic. I often dilute the oil paint down with turpentine in the initial stages and use it like watercolour.

"My figurative painting is all about depicting the mood and intimacy within a moment, using a loose approach to my brushwork, trying to be spontaneous while carefully considering placement of strong contrasting values to create depth.

"I have spent thousands of hours drawing figures from life. This has been fundamental to the development of my figurative painting style -- mainly because I get to observe directly the little details in body language that can suggest all manner of narrative. My favourite one is that everyone deserves to feel loved.

"I also teach figure drawing and painting which means I am constantly examining, tweaking and improving the process. My main inspiration comes from being outside, studying people, oceans, landscapes and skies in all weather conditions.

"I feel I have succeeded when I can look at my finished painting and recall accurately how i felt during the process of painting... a little like re-reading a diary.

"One of my latest projects is about depicting skies and landscapes at altitude, I have a lot of fun exploring the skies in my paramotor, flying above, around and sometimes inside the clouds, the atmosphere and light at several thousand feet can be extremely fascinating and a real challenge to depict with a paint brush.