Gary Obee

It's not particularly a long history of painting although when I attended secondary school my art teacher did in fact give me a set of oil paints and to experiment with this medium. However, in the late 70's jobs were thin on the ground and I was lucky enough to go straight from school into our family car business in Canterbury. This very quickly became full on with demanding hours and subsequently a few years later with young family, my painting ambitions took a back seat.

Fast forward almost 40-years and prompted by my brother-in-law George Meech (sadly recently departed), George and I attended a number of oil painting courses at the Norfolk Painting School and although I was still very much involved in the family motor business at the time, I gradually found time to paint and build on the techniques and lessons learned while in Norfolk.

In 2021 I retired from the motor trade and one of my first tasks was to install a studio in the garden of our home in Broadstairs, where most weeks I am painting to one degree or another. Not full time, but I do enjoy the creativity and am always trying to employ those oil painting techniques we learn such as glazing, impasto and alla prima. Over the past 3-years I have also been involved with the Thanet Plein Air painting group and in July I am attending a course in Devon to build on the technique of painting wet into wet.