Colin Joyce
Born in Sunderland in the North East of England, Colin has lived in Dunfermline, Scotland since 2004. Having always had an interest in art since early school years, he studied art to Advanced level and, later, part-time college. Colin pursued a career in Financial Services for 38 years, painting in his spare time, more seriously from 2000. He took early retirement in 2013 to concentrate on painting full time. Colin has been fortunate to have studied with renowned oil painter Ken Howard RA OBE, also internationally known watercolourists Joseph Zbukvic and Alvaro Castagnet.
Colin writes articles for Leisure Painter magazine and is a regular watercolour instructor on cruise ships. He also works with Arte Umbria tutoring painting holidays in Italy and Slikamilina Painting Tours in Croatia, as well as running his own workshops in Scotland.
I am most inspired by the places I visit. I love to travel and record those memories in sketches and photographs. The subjects I choose to paint are a result of those travels, whether close by or distant. They are a part of my story, my life. I begin an artwork either from my sketches or photographs, never from someone else’s. I had to be there, be involved, and recall the sounds and smells of the place. I often create a painting on location, known as Plein Air, which gives the artwork a spontaneous vitality sometimes difficult to recreate later in the studio. I am inspired by light, the way it changes the landscape day by day, hour by hour. I paint what inspires me, what stops me in my tracks. I enjoy working with both oils on canvas and watercolour on paper. The way oil paint or watercolour is applied to the surface and how it reacts is so different, so exciting, each having its own qualities shine through in the end result. I adore the marks left by the brush in oil paintings. I love the way the white of the paper shines through a watercolour to create light. My paintings give back so much, more than a photograph ever could. Memories of the places I visit, people I meet and friends I make. I like creating art for the pleasure it shares.
