I was taught by Ian during my Master's degree—the sweetest, most brilliant painter. His work explores landscapes and our relationship with them, how we see space and the land around us. Ian was a landscape artist in the 80s, and his abstract work grew from that deep connection to place.

Tàpies showed me that paint doesn't have to be just paint. By introducing materials like marble dust and sand, he created surfaces that felt ancient, weathered, tactile—surfaces that carried their own history.

Innes showed me that you don't need grand gestures to create powerful work; sometimes restraint speaks loudest. His work is about what's left behind as much as what's put down—a lesson that's shaped how I think about my own layering process.

Peter Lanyon was the first contemporary painter to show me emotion and experience within the gestures of marks—marks he made from his flying trips over the Cornish landscape.