My paints

I am often asked how I work and what medium I like to work in. Above is my painting equipment, which has everything from gold powder to scarlet ink to Japanese rubbers shaped like pot noodles! I generally paint in gouache but like to mix it with inks, fibre-tip pens and pastels. Yesterday, I decided to stock up on art supplies so I went to L.Cornelissen & Son in Covent garden. I love to shop there as it has everything, is beautifully old-fashioned and is rather like a 19th century apothecary with large jars of amazing coloured pigments, wooden shelves with pastels laid out with cigars, and bottles of gold leaf be it English, Dutch or French. Most importantly for me though they stock Schminke gouache paints, the quality of which is amazing. I think quality is especially apparent in certain colours not least prussian blue and scarlet and I love the density of their black calligraphy gouache too. Cornelissens is also a shop with a history, it was established in 1855 and has provided art supplies to artists such as Ford Maddox Brown, Dante Gabriel Rosetti and in present days Damien Hirst.