No I did not! I am a software engineer by qualification and started out mostly self taught with my art.

After a few years of painting on my own and learing the basics, I later sought out teachers and mentors and have learned a lot from them. I try to take a couple of workshops every year.

I have been drawing forever and painting seriously for over a decade now. After painting as a hobby for a few years, I started investing serious time in it more than 10 years ago. I have been painting with oil and gouache paints.

I use professional grade artist materials for all my work. My favourite brand of oil paint is Rembrandt. When it comes to Gouache, I swear by Schmincke.

I hoard a lot of brushes, love those from Rosemary Brushes, Da Vinci and Winsor & Newton.

I switch between a limited palette and a full range of colours often, just to keep things interesting.

My favourite limited palette is Napthol Red, Cad Yellow Medium, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. There is nothing that I cannot mix with these.

Òccasionally I do! When I frantically chase sunlight, I take a quick snapshot of my setup and use it as a reference. I try not to use photographs as I love working from life.

Of course you can! I co-host a weekly Still Life Painting Challenge on Instagram and share a reference every week. You are welcome to paint them. Please tag me so that I can see them :)

If you'd like the reference for any painting that I post, just write to me and I will share it if I have.

Yes! I share references to share my ideas on how I set up a still life. You are welcome to crop them anyway you like and of course sell them too. Happy painting and great success in selling too!

My advice is to start small, commit to 10-15 minutes everyday. You will be amazed how much you can achieve in that time. Keep at it and it will add up.

Try to keep your materials as accessible as you can. I have my sketchbook and pencils at the dining table so that I don't have to make extra effort to get to them.

If you have a very specific question/issue, feel free to write to me.

I get a lot of nice comments on my setups. So I put together this beginner's guide for a good still life setup. You can download it here. I hope you find it useful!