I am a painter, not an artist. "Artist" is too generic of a term. A painter should be able to do any subject matter equally well, including landscapes, portraits, the figure and still life.My work comes first. Everything else is secondary. "Life is short; art is long". We do not have Rembrandt alive today but we have his work. Art should move you. It should not bore the audience. The artists that move me include Whistler, Rembrandt, Inness, Sargent, Eakins, Velazquez, Vermeer, Dewing and Sorolla to name just a few. Alex Colville and Andrew Wyeth are two contemporaries who have had an impact upon me, as have my own masters, Tom Sherwood, Thomas Schlotterback and Michael John Angel. Without Don Joplin, I would not be an artist today. It's a life-long pursuit to try and get it right.