How has sailing influenced your work? Have you done much sailing yourself?

I love sailing, the sheer joy of being on the water with the effortless natural power of the breeze taking me across the ocean with the play of light on the surface, the sound of the waves and the beauty of the surrounding environment. I used to sail as a boy regularly and owned a Topper sailing dingy ‘Puffin’; she gave me true freedom, respect for the sea and an appreciation of the power of nature. My father also owned a Westerly Griffon yacht, ‘Willow of Mylor’, and we would spend time together sailing off the south coast of Cornwall, photographing, painting and camping in her and swimming to secluded bays and beaches. This sailing experience has undoubtedly influenced my work, as I know the feel of being on the ocean and the feel of the breeze filling the sails. I can describe a yacht in just a few brush strokes, capturing the essence of billowing sails and sparkling water. I now paint from the shore and revisit those secluded coves and beaches I sailed to as a boy to capture the yachts out on the ocean and the fun of a family day on the shore.

Can you tell us a bit about the “Last Chance to Paint” project? Island Sailing are passionate about marine conservation and love that this art project raises awareness about climate change.

I founded Last Chance to Paint in 2018 to celebrate my 50th birthday, and the award-winning Falmouth Art Gallery in Cornwall held a major public retrospective of my art ‘Painting the Colours of the World – John Dyer at 50, a Retrospective’ and commissioned a book with a foreword by Alan Titchmarsh MBE to celebrate my life and work. It struck me that the same information I had been taught at school about climate change (the greenhouse effect back in the 1980s) was still being taught, but that nothing had been done to stop the damage. I have made changes in my life to reduce my footprint on the planet and its ecosystems and have travelled in conjunction with the Eden Project to highlight endangered ecosystems. Still, I suddenly realised I was influential as so many schools around the UK and the world study me as an artist and use my paintings to inspire children to paint. When primary school children reach the age of 50, the world could be unrecognisable in so many ways if we all don’t take personal responsibility and try to limit the damage we are doing. It’s far too late to protest; it’s too late to wait for governments to act, it’s time to act, and I felt that by inviting schools to ‘travel’ with me, to learn with me, to meet tribal people with me, to get involved and to ask questions we might be able to influence the younger generation not just to protest but actually to do something about it themselves, to take personal responsibility.