Geoff Bennett

I paint mostly in acrylics - can't be trusted with oils (I’m too messy) and am insufficiently subtle to paint decent watercolours. I generally paint on cardboard or MDF, over unsuccessful past pictures. That way I get great texture and avoid accumulating a stack of old paintings.

I like to paint still lifes, portraits or anything in the fresh air. I don't much like painting life models: it’s difficult and anyway sitting around with no clothes on is not what people do, in my limited experience. Maybe I need to get out more.

Artists I admire: Caravagio, John Piper, Alfred Wallis (in part for the blue plaque on his St Ives cottage: 'Mariner and artist' – a great epitaph). Other artists I admire: Trevor Chamberlain, Stella Hunt, Bill Dean and Les Smith (all members of our Art Society).