gritstonearts

 Since I was a young child I enjoyed painting and drawing but coming from a relatively poor background  my parents were understandably more concerned that I work in an area that provided a secure income rather than allowed an ‘expression of creative instincts’, a  ‘proper job’ as it was termed  back then. The 'proper job' has involved working in science based fields all my life (I enjoyed the sciences as well as art).

Family and work commitments pushed my artistic endeavours ever more on to the back burner   and for years I did very little however  approaching my autumn years  and seeing a couple of  friends and family suffer serious health issues made me realise that you only get one shot at it (life that is) so maybe spend some of it doing something that you actually want to do.

Around the same time I discovered that art could be produced digitally. I  bought a hi-spec laptop, one of those fancy Wacom Cintiq pads, subscribed  to Adobe CC Photoshop and ‘enrolled’ in the university of YouTube.  Having  got together some basic skills  I found that even with  limited time I can still be artistically productive and I now do mostly digitally based art with just a little traditional art. I'm getting a website designed and who knows maybe I'll be able to  fulfil my lifetime ambition of having an ‘improper’ job.

I chose the name Gritstonearts as I grew up in the Pennines and the local stone there is black or gritstone.  Sometimes if you don’t know where you are going its good to know where you are from. Gritstone is kind of a mark of my origins (and it sounds cool as well).