About Alan.....Inspired by my grandfathers skill in watercolours, I have been drawing and painting since childhood. Upon leaving school I enrolled at Bolton Art College for a two year foundation course, later going on to gain an Honours Degree in Fine Art at Manchester Polytechnic. With a young family to support I established an engraving business, working for jewellers and others all over the British Isles. I continued to paint and exhibit in a small way but it is only in the last five years, since opening my first gallery to run alongside the engraving workshop, which I have begun to devote more time to painting. I am interested in a variety of themes, ranging from landscape, urban landscape, beach scape to pond surfaces and very personal family portraiture. In order to depict exactly what I wish to convey to the viewer I employ a range of media including oil, watercolour and pastel, carefully choosing what I consider to be 'the right tools for the job' Often my use of source material involves a long filtration process, ten to twenty years is not uncommon before an image prompts me to use it.........