I was inspired to paint by my art master at the Royal Masonic School who's name believe it or not was Renoir (Ben Ren to the boys) The greatest advice he ever gave me was this: 'If you wish to be any good, study the masters. In doing so you will firstly undoubtably find inspiration, secondly, if you study them sufficiently you may even discover some of their techniques. Thirdly and most importantly of all, you will never be allowed to kid yourself that you are any good. I have never had any reason to doubt his words, particularly the last paragraph.
