Materials

What goes into every painting.

People often ask what I paint with, so here it all is. Every painting I make starts with the same few things, chosen over twenty years of working at scale, and each one is here because it holds up for generations.

Belgian Linen

I paint on Libeco Loomstate linen from Belgium, in its natural ecru, cut from the roll for each painting. Chapman and Bailey hand prime it for me, which for a painting on a black ground means one coat of white and two of black, and I add a couple more coats of my own in the studio before I start painting. The linen is then stapled flat to my studio wall so the surface is true.

Linen is recognised as the finest natural fibre for artists' canvas. Its fibres are longer and stronger than cotton, so it holds its tension across a large span instead of slackening over time.

Stretcher Bars

Once a painting is finished, Chapman and Bailey in Melbourne build a custom stretcher to its exact size and brace it to suit the scale. Most go on pine, braced with anything from a single H-brace to four braces, so the linen stays drum tight for generations.

Some of the largest works go on aluminium stretcher bars imported from Italy, which hold a true, flat plane at spans where timber would eventually warp or twist. Paintings of almost five metres are too big to travel stretched, so Chapman and Bailey send a team out to my studio to stretch them on site.

Paint

I paint with Matisse acrylics, made in Australia by Derivan. Derivan is a family company that has been making artist paint since 1964, and was the first Australian manufacturer of artist-quality acrylics. The colours carry a high pigment load and are rated to the archival standard for lightfastness, so a painting holds its colour rather than fading with the years. I mix my own colours for every horse.

Explore Matisse paints

Brushes

I did my first collection with house paint brushes. Mark Chapman of Chapman and Bailey asked whether I had ever tried an artist's brush, and that one question changed how I work. I now paint with da Vinci brushes, handmade in Germany, and they have since made a brush to my own design with my name on the handle.