"The great gulf which seems to exist between my own brand of painting, and the very modern technology that enables you to see the work here, was a divide I thought enormous; I had to admit that the leap across it couldn’t be put off any longer… and when I did jump I wished I’d done so before; it really is fun trying to make use of all this cyberspace (though we all know that computer time turns five minutes into an hour in the blink of the proverbial eye). If I’m honest, I guess I’d rather be drawing or painting - after all, the keyboard and screen don’t remain a novelty for long - but it’s great to be a part of the future as well as the past.

Reassuringly for me, the buzz and excitement of using brush and paper has definitely not worn off…

Sketching and painting in Yorkshire, England (my home county), Norfolk and especially Northern Scotland, I’ve also found inspiration in East and West Africa (Kenya and Cape Verde). Varied though these land and seascapes are, I feel that drawing and painting in water-colour somehow tie them together - and while the colour palette may be very different from place to place, the one thing common to all is the business of painting with light."

Mark Smith 2003