{"product_id":"lee-mccarthy","title":"Lee McCarthy","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor as long as I can remember I have always loved art. Whenever I had a chance I would get out my pencils and paper and sketch. Through my school years I never really thought about what I wanted to become but I always loved the art class and I always put in 100 per cent and took things a little further and the teachers were very encouraging and always liked my work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMostly self-taught though I do have A Level art and design, I always wanted to go further into university but It wasn’t affordable for me so after my school years I followed in my father’s footsteps and became a landscape garden designer, and so art was just a hobby in my spare time. I started my own landscape company which was quite successful for a few years but in 2008 I was forced to shut down due to recession. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter this I decided to set up a studio in my home and start painting full time. I built up a collection of work and would submit to online galleries and put my work in local art shows and galleries and rented stalls at art markets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy love for the coast and holidays to the coastal regions of Britain has inspired me to create this collection of work. Working in acrylics on canvas I build up layers of textures and colour trying to keep a uniform colour co-ordination as I feel this brings the whole picture together. After that I will get to the fun part of adding all the details which brings the painting to life.\u003cbr\u003e\nI have developed a style of my own over the past few years which I would call modern impressionism and naïve. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInspiration can come from anywhere or anytime, anyplace. I find my ideas and inspiration comes to me mostly when I am about to sleep at night. I will be lying there and many ideas will race through my mind and I’ll have to jump up and note things down or do a quick sketch so I can then put them into practice when I next paint. Sometimes I will just jump up put on my overalls and paint into the early hours because I can’t wait till the next day.\u003cbr\u003e\nArt is my passion which is with me every single day and I couldn’t think of anything more exiting to do and feel very lucky that I can do something that I love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49565422387535,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/watergate.art\/products\/lee-mccarthy","provider":"Watergate Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}