I live in Mangawhai, on Northland's east coast. We had a bach here for 25 years before building our permanent home two years ago. The estuary here has given me endless joy: fishing, floundering, swimming and boating. It is a very special place, and it needs to be looked after. My studio is above the garage. It has become an important part of how I work. It allows paintings to develop at their own pace, with room to leave work unfinished, return to it with fresh eyes, and simply spend time looking.

I first picked up a paintbrush about 14 years ago, while living in Australia. Until then, I had always believed I couldn't draw and had no talent for painting. Bored with living in paradise, I joined a painting class in Noosa. The teacher asked me what I wanted to paint. I had no idea, so he handed me a picture of a frog and said, paint that.

What he taught me is that at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you paint. Frogs, trees, cars, people. You are only ever painting one thing, and that's light. Hence the name of this website.

The first paintings I ever did were fish on driftwood, in acrylics, before I graduated to canvas. Fishing has been an integral part of my life, both fresh water and salt, and though I haven't painted fish for a while, I wouldn't discount returning to them at some stage.