I started painting quite early on as a way of communicating how I felt about a situation or event. It was a way of escape. Whenever there was a disaster or major event, I would draw it over and over again, developing it through a process of editing down and changing colour schemes as I went along. I remember seeing 'The Wreck of Hope' by Caspar David Friedrich, a painting of a ship being crushed by huge pack ice at the Tate Gallery, which had a profound effect on me. Then I heard about the Titanic disaster and I was hooked. I did hundreds of drawings of the ill fated liner after reading a second hand book 'A Night to Remember' and visualising it at every stage of it's demise. I even imagined it sitting in pieces on the seabed many years before the infamous ship was found. I asked myself how could something liquid like water be so destructive?

Later, my repetitive investigation of image composition led me to look at printmaking as a way of developing a way of constructing images. The complex stages of etching, with its subtle aquatint tones and painted on spit biting gave my etchings a very painterly feel to them and at the same time led me to look at colour in terms of layers. This led to my river paintings of the Thames and rowers dancing over its surface and the patterns of colour and shadows, both reflected and below a liquid surface. About 10 years ago, I moved to Tooting where there is one of Europe's largest open-air lidos hiding amongst the trees of Tooting Bec common. It had an immediate effect upon my work.

When I first came across this hidden rectangle of cobalt blue I couldn't believe it. Looking at it from the deep end, it seemed more like a liquid 'runway'. Gradually I began to experience this corner of south London as a large stage on which to construct my scenes of people enjoying themselves. Recently I've invested in a wetsuit to cope with the cold when standing waist deep in the unheated pool taking down visual notes of colour and liquid shapes. I get an appreciative nod from the regulars, but I do sometimes get a look of curiosity from younger visitors.

I paint figures because each one is different and in water they seem to defy gravity. I first came across Thomas Eatkins in an old second hand book, which led me to Andrew Weyeth and Michael Andrews, and then to the prints and pool series by David Hockney for their connection with painting the figure in or around water. I feel that life drawing is very important to developing looking skills. Drawing is about training ourselves to look at things properly, not just to see things and forget. You don't have to be any good at drawing to enjoy it, but you use part of something that you may have forgotten and buried years ago. Dismayed at the lack of life drawing in colleges, I studied anatomy at Morley College and run regular life drawing workshops at home in Battersea.

My painting techniques are unconventional. I'll start a painting with broad sweeps of base colour washes of various translucencies on a pre-stretched surface. I can achieve luminosity from the paper surface. The speed I initially work at the start of a painting is fast as I cover the surface with a light tone that is more similar to the main colour of the water, using a very large flat sable brush 1.5in to 2in wide. In some circumstances, where the image is very large, I have worked on paper as broad as a double bed stretched on a thick MDF (medium density fibre board) that I swivel on a large dining table using household brushes. I use a tough paper, usually Bockingford not 300gsm that gives me enough texture for the paint to cling to the surface during demonstrations. It doesn't really matter if the paper is vertical or horizontal

By painting the background first and working forwards in layers, I get the effects of depth and vibrancy to the painting. I frequently use digital imaging or a projector to manipulate the image onto the surface to achieve a suitable composition. That way I'm not relying on hundreds of sketches, which can make it difficult to decide which figure arrangements to use, and besides, I have a filing cabinet full of them which I use as a visual library. I often use masking fluid; a latex based quick drying fluid that allows me to paint over an area that is to be left white or lighter than the next colour. To get a fine spray effect, I use a hinged diffuser, normally used for fixing charcoal drawing.

There are several key areas to painting. The first is the compositional stage where the figures are worked out and what needs to be masked out initially. At the end of this stage is the point of no return where I can alter where things are going to go. The second stage is establishing what the background is going to be and what the intensity of colour is going to be, and the last stage is developing the figures within and the details of spray and costumes.

I prefer using watercolour and gouache as it is a fast medium to use and doesn't take long to dry between layers. Even so, I work on several pieces at once, going back to paintings when I have come up with compositional solutions on other paintings and frequently return to paintings months later when I have seen a solution to a difficult compositional problem.

I have exhibited in 'Open House' events for several years and find that exhibiting in domestic settings helps potential buyers relate to paintings in a 'lived in' environment that is more appropriate than the intimidating white box of the gallery or the frantic cash and carry atmosphere of the 'art fair'.