Alistair Hamilton

I was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland in 1962. I suppose I showed early artistic promise. I seemed to have a natural talent for drawing animals having won a pavement artist competition with a picture of a swallow tailed kite. I even managed to get an illustration of a horse's head onto a popular national television series. (Vision On - for all those Brits who remember those days).

Come my teens however, art took a back seat with one notable exception. After much time was spent in persuading my parents, I reproduced the cover of the Rainbow Rising LP as a mural on my bedroom wall. The following year, I dabbled in abstract art with another mural in my bedroom. This, done without parental consent, was designed to hide the dart holes in the wall that my brothers and I had made whilst our parents were away for the weekend. 

It wasn't until I was at university that I starting doodling again. Finding it helped relax me during my exams, I took to drawing images based on the titles of my favourite songs. A few of these are available in the 'Early Work' gallery.

I really started to paint more frequently after university with the period from 1984 - 1986 being one where I began to develop my own style. But it wasn't until I was given a decent airbrush that I developed the techniques and style that I still use today.

Come 1990 however, almost all painting stopped due to other commitments. Marriage, starting a family, as well as establishing my own IT consultancy business, BetamicroSolutions - these have taken priority. Consequently, I did very little in the way of art, other than the odd pencil and ink sketch. So most of the images currently contained in this site are from that period.

2001 saw a turning point in that I have once more become enthused about my art. Although I would still like to get the airbrush out again, time, space and inconvenience make this impractical. However, having invested in a Wacom graphics tablet and some decent software, new fantasy images started to flow. I've also experimented with other media, in particular, watercolour pencils and coloured pencils. Watch this space....

Unfortunately, the end of 2001 also saw another halt to my artistic endeavors as I became involved in a rather acrimonious divorce which went on a lot longer than I would have liked. It's only since the dust settled that I felt the creative juices flowing again.

I'm often asked where I get my ideas from. The easiest answer is 'everywhere'. I am continually observing my natural surroundings - a strangely twisted tree, an interesting cloud formation - literally anything that nature presents to us is enough to spark an image. I also read a lot of fantasy books (though not as much as I'd like). Whilst I haven't done many interpretations of novels, they do provide material that I often use in non-related pictures.

Perhaps my biggest influence is music. I almost always have a CD on and listen to anything from classical to electronic, from progressive rock (yes, despite the hair - or lack of it - I confess, I'm an ageing hippy!) to jazz rock. The title of a song or an album is enough to trigger a concept in my mind. Whether I ever get around to committing the idea to paper is another matter.