The Inspiration Behind the Artwork

Plein Air Painter Toby Ray

  As the light dances upon the moving water it creates a kind of magic which never fails to captivate me... 

I grew up in the South Devon village of Wembury, a stone's throw away from the sea. My childhood was spent in and around the ocean and the nearby river Yealm.

I was in my element out on dad's boat or catching fish in the rock pools at Wembury beach. I'd often sketch these fish, copying (badly) photos from nature books at home. I'd copy Garfield cartoons and butterflies and birds. In fact looking back all I did was copy stuff.

I started bodyboarding when i was about 9 or 10. That lead to surfing and the rest is history. My addiction to the sea grew ever stronger. It wasn't until after my final year in secondary school that I started to draw and paint the waves that I was always surfing.

I picked up some soft pastels and found them perfect to blend all the changing colours of the sea. Really not having a clue what I wanted to do with my life, I enrolled at Plymouth Art College undertaking an extended foundation course. It opened my eyes to a multitude of art practices. Photography, printmaking, fashion, sculpture etc, but painting was what I really settled on. At this stage, I hadn't even used real paint before apart from a few goes with dad's watercolours...............