As a student Morris Louis’s work was my main inspiration or perhaps motivation: to make paintings which somehow got to his work whilst being of myself, my feelings and emotions. it was hard to do as they are so particular - being driven also by their process. Noland’s work helped somewhat, as did seeing John Mclean (via Jack Bush) but it was not as simple as that, for one thing in all of this maelstrom of influence sits a pulsing force of art that you don’t want to make - you are constantly pushing away from these artists (all artists) to get to your own territory - often in the same moment as being drawn in by their work. Indeed, I would argue that if you are not facing down the art you are challenged by, if you are not rising to its challenge you are conceding to an art that will be more benign in nature; the thought of that is intolerable. Louis’s work I first saw in a book; it was more a case of not rejecting it rather than being wowed by it. I was intrigued but had no idea why. Having grown up in the south Wales valleys there was no advanced art as such, hardly any in fact of any description that I was aware of, other than the historical through lessons. I was the only kid who went to Cardiff art college from the town (which was the biggest town in Wales at the time) It was the early eighties and a form of neo-expressionism had gripped Cardiff, where I did my Foundation course - I didn’t respond to that at all. It even made me unsure if I wanted to take Fine Art on (if that was what it looked like). I persevered. When I got to Reading Uni and settled into work, found the slide library and spent long hours in both the Art Department library and the main university campus one, just looking at lots of images of art that I had heard tutors mention, or simply browsing to look at stuff myself. Then I started, very slowly, to see how making paintings could connect closely with my own sensibilities - they could be of me, myself rather than being made by me being a “painter”, so to speak. This, I can see now, formed the ‘take’ on Art that has sustained me ever since. Getting back to Louis: his work led me (back) to Matisse in a more profound way than the historical references, prior. I began to see the paint more, for one thing, the actualities and mechanisms of how things are put together and why. Louis’s paintings got me thinking about making, really making, and not any look. Everything revolved around colour, of course. I find myself coming back to his work, only when I feel more connected with my own - that’s an intriguing thought, for me.