In the past I enjoyed creating landscape art using acrylic paint or pastels. I work full time, so this was always done in my spare time. I also did not have a space where I could leave my materials out so everything had to be tided away for use the next time. And sometimes a few days would pass, and the paint would dry in the mixing tray. This situation made setting up and putting away, remixing colours and getting back into the ‘zone’ needed for painting all a bit of a chore. So I stopped, and for some years I didn’t return to it.

Instead I worked on my photography and other websites. At work I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to use Photoshop and have used it for photography and particularly the ‘Then and Now’ images I created.

The urge to paint never went though, so I’d thought I give creating digital art a go. I brought a drawing tablet and got started. One of my first efforts is above.

So much easier than traditional painting, no mess, progress saved and remembered, an undo button. Is it as worthy as real painting, in terms of creativity? Probably not, but I’ve always copied photographs and tried to create a realistic copy, so this suits me.

This is a digital painting of Rye from the bank of the River Rother, from a photograph taken by me one warm and sunny day.

This can be purchased as a print or other media via my Red Bubble page here.