Someone asked me the other day what was my favourite painting. I thought a simple question, well... I replied.. it could be... And there I realised that this was a much harder question than I first thought. I always returned to J.M.W. Turner as my first painting inspiration for many years, not that my efforts even look anything like his work, especially his later work, but because I admired his dedication to his art. He obsession in getting out into the landscape and observing and recording what he saw. He advice to ‘ paint a sky every day’, seemed to me to be a pretty good way to learn the craft. Turner’s ‘The Burning of the House of Commons’ contains such passion and emotion. It transfixes the viewer with it’s use of colour and form. It’s not a painting you would hang on your wall to compliment your colour scheme and furniture, but it would define something within you. The ‘Nighthawks’ by Hopper, for me has that haunting quality that a really good painting has. This one is on the wall of my office and I never tire of looking at it. But if I had to have just one painting to put on my wall and live with ( and all of us should choose artwork for our homes that we both love and can live with, something that makes you think and maybe smile each time you look at it, for me it would be something by Julian Merrow Smith, a modern painter living in the south of France who encapsulates the tradition of the Impressionists with a passion for simple images. Lavender Fields at Sault So I’m sure if that answers the question, ‘what is your favourite painting’, but probably I will change my mind as I see more fantastic art by some very clever artists.