Thanks

Top of my list of thanks must, obviously, be my partner, Pam. Without her (critically) there would be no me! There would also be no website if she had not introduced me to technology and thereby to meet Carole Denholm and there would be no art or rather, the “refinement” of it, as Pam is my ‘eyes’ and my adviser. She is my sternest critic and my greatest supporter, though at times, especially through my bouts of frustration and impatience, she showed great restraint within herself. She undertook the unenviable task of mixing paints, where necessary, from the long ago colours I remembered. I may struggle to achieve perfection in my art, but I achieved it long ago in my choice of partner. Thanks, Pam! Carole Denholm was the driving force behind the creation of the original version of this website and it is to be marvelled at and wondered at, as to how she managed to survive not only the unstinting and untiring hours of technological expertise and knowledge that she brought to the site, but also having the stamina and unending patience to deal with my indecisiveness and stupidity, at times, as she tried to instil in me the different and necessary components of the site. I shall always be truly grateful to Carole for all her hard work and dedication. My thanks also go to Catalin Brylla for his incredible and technical work and patience in filming not only one, but two documentaries about my work. Catalin must have the hide of a rhino, as my irreverence and dry humour bounced off him like so many discarded hecklers at The Fringe festival in Edinburgh. He knew me well enough by now and took each and every joke with his, supposedly, radiant smile. Though he did get his own back, by the ubiquitous regime of Continuity - oh, how I came to hate that word, with every inch of filming being scrutinised and repeated time after time. Still, it gave me an insight into what happens behind the action on the small and large screens. Fred Tickle brought great enthusiasm to the site and used his technical know-how to the superb editing of the video extracts and stills from A Touch of Colour. Originally, there were two versions of A Touch Of Colour, one being the audio/visual video as linked to on this site, but the other film had a music soundtrack specially composed by Hampshire-based Mike Dunn. It was – and is – a lovely piece of music, in the pastoral style and was scored for oboe and strings, but for whatever reason, the Director chose to go with the audio/visual film. Personally, I would have preferred the one with the music for, more often than not, when I am working on a painting, I always have music playing, whether it be pertinent and inspirational to the painting or just some piece from what I call my “countryside music”. As well as a composer, Mike Dunn is a singer/songwriter who specialises in ambient music. His work can be found here. Lastly, but by no means leastly, my thanks go to Chris (a.k.a. ‘Buenchico’), from The Answerbank, for “cobbling together” this new version of my website in 2021. As he says, ‘he might be more of a tortoise than a hare, but he gets there in the end’ ;-) This is,of course, a very self-deprecating and disparaging view of himself, as I have found that working with Chris – whom I have never met or spoken to, except via email and The Answerbank – has been very rewarding indeed and totally invaluable for the advice he has given me! Although he can be a bit impulsive at times, needing persuading not to jump into his car and come to my rescue from wherever he lives, Chris has helped in so many ways, though I think that the website is his most challenging – yet! Chris is, a “beyond words” person, though I am immensely privileged to ‘know’ him!