Irish Painter John Nolan explains the use of motifs and colour in his art, and his journey so far on canvas As a child I was literally surrounded by art. The walls and ceilings of our home were covered in murals and friezes painted by my father, John senior. Our small bedroom was decorated with scenes from Hollywood movies and on the ceilings his magical paintbrush had created scenes from the Sistine Chapel. In this Aladdin's cave my father's easel and painting paraphernalia were set up, and I whiled away many happy hours there.

After briefly attending art college, I realised it wasnt for me. My foundation course had been completed many years previously - my upbringing with the daily drawing and painting lessons brought to life by my fathers expertise and enthusiasm, and the weekly visits to various exhibitions and galleries.

After many years working figuratively producing portraits, landscapes and still lifes using pastel, watercolour, oils and acrylics, I eventually decided, about 12 years ago, to focus on colour , using acrylics exclusively. I explore colour through thematic subjects and motifs. The objects/subjects so to speak within my paintings are the vehicles for my exploration of colour. This would be described as my modern figurative style.

What I put on canvas is pure creative exploration from my imagination. I always paint in the studio - to shelter from the rain, lets be honest I'm talking about Ireland - although the motifs I choose are suggested by the natural world and my love of nature : the landscape, floral, fish, still life, birds and the human face. Primitive cave paintings also inspires me. Across the centuries, we can relate to these striking images that proves the power of shape and colour.

Over the course of my career, I have assembled a language of visual images/motifs. I simplify the image in order to explore the colour combinations, and as we all know it is so much more difficult to simplify something than it is to complicate something. Picasso was always quoted as saying he spent his whole life trying to paint like a child. He was not refering to childrens scribbles on prized furniture. He was trying to achieve that uncorrupted childlike view of the world, before we are socially conditioned into so called maturity and adulthood. This is the simplicity that is so difficult to recapture in our artistic endeavours.

Bold outlines combined with bright colours define my figurative composition and transmit a positive feeling. Most people expect to hear I live in some exotic location and fail to understand how I can produce such a riotous celebration of colour while living as I do in the watery greyness of my beloved Dublin. I use something which every artist is familiar with, an inspirational palette. The colours are not governed by the formal palette layout, in fact they are governed by nothing except a desire to create something different.

Over the years I have also been creating work in an abstract style. I like the idea of experimenting with colour through gestural brushstrokes. My aim is to achieve movement in order to encourage the eye to travel over the canvas. There is no discernible subject matter - just me, the canvas, paint, brushes and of course my muses, without whom I would be totally lost !

This is the point where I always ponder the statement by Maurice Denis, painter and writer, that " a painting is essentially a flat surface covered with colour assembled in a certain order ". I gain invaluable reassurance from this simple but profound statement. Although the painting of Abstracts is wonderfully exciting and frustrating for me, I always revisit my old haunts and motifs. Abstract painting is not widely understood here in Ireland. Artists need to be practical - mortgages need to paid !

My working method for both abstract and modern figurative pieces is similar. Obviously, the paint is more freely applied when attacking an abstract. Each painting is built up using a solid field of saturated colour, on top of which even more intense and pure colours are applied. White is deleted from my palette, to allow for greater vibrancy and depth of colour. I use Liquitex acrylics, which I find are very versatile and can be easily adapted to either thin or impasto effects without losing intensity.

The composition is explored in advance through some rough sketch work, and is then crystallised on canavs using solid blocks of colour.This would only apply to the modern figurative work as there is nothing definite when starting an abstract - just an urge to create.

In the modern figurative style this process sometimes becomes spontanaeous and often evolves into a balancing act between composition and colour. Most of my work takes place on canvas. Preparatory sketches are fleeting and are only used in order to work up the courage to attack the blank canvas, a frightening sight for every artist!

The proverbial agony and ecstasy that is the artists lot ( often more agony than ecstasy) is something we all have to live with, except when we are guided by that powerful creative force where everything falls into place and we manage to produce that rare masterpiece, not knowing how we really did it, and unable to recapture it. It seems to me that this is the spur which drives us onward , to create more and more regardless of the artistic shortcomings.

If we understood why we create/ paint/sculpt/write/compose - (the list is endless), we would have stopped long ago, because we would have solved the riddle and found what we were looking for, thereby losing the need to explore and develop.

One monumental artist, who unfortunately never realised that he had touched on what he was looking for, namely Vincent van Gogh, wrote on art - " I have a terrible lucidity at moments when nature is so beautiful. I am not conscious of myself any more, and the pictures come to me as if in a dream" Little did I think that 39 years after I made my artistic aspirations known to my father, and his remark regarding van Goghs decision at 27, that such a misunderstood and passionate human being , namely Vincent, would have such a huge influence on the last three decades of my wielding my paintbrush , and to think that this genius also wrote " I cannot help it that my paintings do not sell. The time will come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint ". I pose these questions : have Vincent van Goghs paintings become an investment now rather than works of art , which should be appreciated and viewed for their aesthetic qualities rather than the! ir monetary values ? Van Gogh only painted for the last few years of his life, but his output was enormous. He produced more than 800 canvases. Should these known and loved masterpieces become commodities for the stock exchange ? Should paintings languish in bank vaults? This thought is a quite disturbing one, for not only us artists, but for the art loving public worldwide............