Though born in England, I have lived in Bermuda nearly all my life, shaped by deep family roots tied to the island (Kitson/Gorham) and New England (Lee). My lifelong love for the arts led me to Boston University’s School of Fine Arts, where I graduated with a degree in Fine Arts & Graphic Design in 1985. After launching my career in Boston at Inc. magazine, the pull of home brought me back to Bermuda in 1988, where I spent the next few decades shaping the island’s visual landscape—including six years as Art Director for the Bank of Butterfield. Today, I work for my family’s business as VP & Creative Director for the Kitson Group of Companies. When I am not focusing on the corporate world or capturing our beautiful coastlines on canvas, you can find me traveling, playing tennis, or diving and snorkelling in our local waters.
Statement: “Working en plein air, I paint directly from nature, striving to capture the intense colours, shifting light, and unique atmosphere of our beautiful island. These oil studies serve as both immediate emotional records and the foundational inspiration for my larger studio pieces.Growth is central to my practice. Years ago, I committed to an ongoing journey of artistic development by traveling overseas annually to study under master oil painters. This regular, intensive training challenges my technical limits and pushes me out of my comfort zone. Balancing the instinctual freedom of outdoor painting with rigorous technical refinement has made my creative journey both a demanding and deeply rewarding process.”
My process: ” I love to paint outside when the weather is cooler. After I select a location to paint, I walk around and sketch small drawings from different directions. There are several questions I ask myself before starting. Where is the focus of this painting….The story? The magic? What is the mood I am trying to convey? Is it a cool or warm day? I try to find a way to link all darks and lights so the viewer’s eye can travel through the painting. I remind myself that the atmosphere is filled with color, and the sky is a dome. The sky reflects on everything & light usually comes from one direction but can be reflected from another. Once I find that, I begin to transfer the composition to my canvas with paint. I am very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. There is endless inspiration everywhere.”
Intensive Workshops & Continued Education:
2013, Susan Sarback 5 day Workshop Susan works solely with a palette knife and a full spectrum palette. A real challenge for me! Her paintings are about capturing the quality of light, color and atmosphere. Susan earned a Masters Degree in Art and studied with an American Impressionist painter, Henry Hensche, in the lineage of Charles Hawthorne and Claude Monet.
2013, John Cosby 5 Day Workshop John is from California and works with a limited palette – only Primary colors. He mixes secondary colours and this creates a harmonious painting. I would highly recommend his workshop to anyone who wants to learn how to paint outside from life. His style of teaching is very generous and easy to learn.
2014, Kim English 5 Day Workshop A Colorado Plein Air painter that works with models outdoors. This was a very advanced class; painting a new position every 5 minutes for 3 hours at a time, for 4 straight days. Kim used a completely different palette from the other workshops, one that was more conducive to flesh tones. By the third day we were all in the flow and producing quality pieces. Kim’s art is full of intense color, unique compositions and movement. Take away: Don’t get too enamoured with your work – scrape it off if you don’t like it and start again.
2014, Boot Camp, with Camille Przewodek at the Cape School of Art in Provincetown MA. We painted from 8 am – 6pm every day and learned the colorist way of painting. Its foundation is using colour to build form, a Henry Hensche theory. Hensche, wrote: “Only the education of the art of seeing, unique as it is, supplies the possibility of continuous growth. As a good music teacher makes the pupil aware of finer sound tones and how to produce them, the good art teacher will make his student aware of finer color tones and how to paint them.”
2015, Kathy Anderson, 4 Day Workshop; an outdoor floral painter who is passionate and extremely patient with her work. She shared new paint colors and techniques to make the painting process easier. She also introduced me to new brushes and a new surface to paint on – Oil primed Canvas. Kathy studied with Richard Schmid who held a Doctorate in Fine Art and was a recipient of The John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Take Away: Use vibrant paints first. When setting up an outdoor garden still life, cut additional flowers and put them into water tubes to add colour.
2017 Colin Page, 5 Day Workshop in Chesapeake Bay MD. ( I have been waiting for almost 2 years to get into his class. ) I admire his work and style of teaching. Colin introduced me to new paint colours by Gamblin. The pigments are very intense and rich in color and safe! Take away: I learned to see warm tones in shadows.
2018, Daniel Keyes 4 Day Workshop, A self taught master of flowers and still life. Daniel’s workshop focused on still life composition, light set up for indoor painting, brush work & new paint colors. Take away: I learned how to mix beautiful greens and studio set up.
September 2024, Joanne Mangi- Animal Portraits as Fine Art – Oil in Studio, Joanne’s art development was self-directed but was soon discovered by the famous artist Richard Schmid and The Putney Painters in VT. The principals of her teachings are similar to painting outside en Plein air. Do the research, design & composition first, study your subject from life, take photos in case you want to create a larger piece later, have fun and don’t expect to produce a masterpiece every time. Each painting is a learning experience and will improve your next painting.
Member of the Bermuda Art Center at Dockyard, Masterworks, Bermuda Society of the Arts & the Bermuda National Gallery.
Influences: Joquin Sorolla, Hensche, Hawthorne, Monet, Renoir, Degas