In case you were wondering

Acrylics ARE proper paint. They've just not been around as long as oil, and there still lingers some prejudice. And it's completely unnecessary. Acrylics give just as good a result, with the additional advantage that they don't go yellow with age - artist grade acrylics are light-fast for a hundred years under gallery conditions.

As for me - I'd always wanted to paint, but the long drying time of oil, coupled with the limited time available to me while I held down a day job, made that impractical. I discovered acrylics by accident whilst reading an article, I tried them and have never looked back. Now, I still don't use oil, although I've nothing against it (apart from the fumes and drying time); I just find acrylic so versatile that I don't see the need to use anything else.

Well, I've read about why YOU paint nudes - so you say! Then why so many other artists paint them? They just get their kicks working with naked bodies, don't they?

That's a common misconception and let's kill it right now. There are two serious reasons why so many artists paint nudes. One is that it's a challenge. The human body is probably the hardest subject of all to paint - it's fantastically complicated; move it just a few degrees, and you're looking at a completely different object.

The other is a matter of expression. The naked body is far more expressive than it could ever be with clothes on. Even skimpy clothing breaks up the flow of a figure; if you paint a figure dressed normally, you only have a face and two hands to work with. Paint it naked, you have 400 muscles to convey your intentions. But whatever your preferences, any artist who hopes to paint human figures must gain some experience with nudes, even as mere anatomical studies. You can't paint a convincing figure with clothes on, unless you understand what's happening underneath those clothes..

I find female curves more expressive, as they are more accentuated than those of the male body. That is of course just practical functionality to make the art work; I've nothing against painting people who have penises.

It's a question of accessibility. Thanks to religious/cultural variances, white folk are less likely to have ingrained hangups about nudity. For the same reason, they're mostly young (so many people have this needless idea that old = hideous). I will gladly paint any adult of any age, size or colour.

I don't really have one; you're not comparing like with like. For depth and lush depiction, I'd say Rachmaninoff. The most intimate - Brahms, for charm - Glazunov, and for instant appeal to the first time listener, Nikolai Medtner, whilst for technical wizardry - Scriabin.

Ha! Look back at the galleries - I often have a Carly Simon CD on while I'm working! Or Helen Reddy, the Beatles, anything by Roy Wood.........

Illuminatus, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Read that and you'll never look at the world in the same way again.