My current favourite brush selection. The ones I use for the main body of a painting are all made by Escoda in Barcelona - two large mops and three, medium travel mop brushes (the ones on the right in the picture). The tips are superb and the body of hair holds a lot of paint. They exude quality and I look after these brushes well.

To the left, I have some older brushes which I use when I want to be more brutal - scratchy, dry brush work.

Added to these, in the centre of the roll, are a few smaller brushes for fine detail and calligraphy.

I use mainly Windsor and Newton artist quality pigments - really just because I have got used to them. The palette is a fairly new type with plenty deep wells - very compact and tough, made of strong plastic.

I sometimes use a spray gun to get the paper pre-wetted or create other watery effects on the paper.A decorator's sponge is ideal for getting excess water out of the brush after rinsing and wiping areas of painting to blur and remove paint when required. A jar of water is also pretty essential.

I have probably spent many more hours gazing at the paintings of great watercolourists than I have actually painting. When getting to the very roots of the tradition I regard Joh Sell Cotman as the pinnacle - his work has a graphic, contemporary look to it, which I love. Later, John Singer Sargent is beautifully psychedelic in his wild and clashing array of colours. Edward Seago, contrastingly, is the minimalsit, zen master of 20th century - pure washes of genius. In the modern age we have had artists like Trevor Chamberlain (UK) and, in the dvd age, Alvaro Castagnet(Uraguay) strutting his stuff and continuing in the tradition of travelling aquarellist.

Living in Glasgow, I also find myself following in the footsteps of the Scottish colourists - torn between the harsh, grey conditions of Scotland and the heady allure of the Mediterranean. I am a regular along the Cote d'Azur in France and the Costa Brava in Spain, and dream of spending a lot more time there. As a winter retreat, I would also add the Canary Isles, particularly Lanzarote, as favourite places to paint - the bold colours of the landscape are captivating: cadmium red rock, quinacridone golden sand, turquiose and ultramarine seas and cerulean skies are highly addicitve.