CH: When you first started painting, people around you weren’t always supportive of your career in art – do you think society has a more supportive attitude towards artists?

RD: Society at the present moment has a better idea and more acceptance of art than during my earlier time. The only reason it is difficult for young artists today is that so many set out to be professional artists too early, instead of doing it for the sheer joy of painting and finding their own ideas.

 CH: Which aspect of painting do you find most satisfying?

RD: Ideas are two bob a dozen, it’s making them work that’s hard. The complicated and arduous process is not very enjoyable, but real pleasure comes from putting down the last brush stroke when you’ve solved all the problems. You can sit back then and enjoy or hate the picture.

CH: You manage to keep up a fairly full schedule of shows – can you tell me a bit about your daily routine, and how you manage to balance your work with other interests?

RD: I get up early and exercise. In summer, I would normally do laps of our swimming pool. After that, I study the horse-racing form guide for an hour, have breakfast and then go into the studio to work. I exercise again in the evening when I’ve finished. We have a horse training track on the farm, so I walk around the track for about an hour and a half. But, if the painting is not going well then you have to find more time, get up earlier and work more. Personally I have always adhered to a training schedule for my own health, so to see the horses enduring the same lifestyle amuses me. We breed a few racehorses as well and it’s even more enjoyable to see the progress from foal to racehorse. They are very much like people in the sense they all have their own unique personalities, traits, likes and dislikes. My racing interest doesn’t so much balance my life – it really compliments it. In a sense, horse racing is very similar to painting - a good horse is as hard to find as a good painting.

CH: You’ve been living on the south coast now for about 8 years – how has living in the country influenced your work?

RD: Yes, well I’m thrust in the middle of landscape now, all the time. Land forms which tower up all around the house. It’s more free than the city. Cities can be like a jail; when you work in a city, you have to concentrate on people. The landscape is a great way to play with the composition of a painting because there are so many subtle changes and variances . The country-side around where I live is very liberating and it’s that feeling of vast space that I like to try and include in quite a few of my more recent paintings.

CH: You and your wife Jenny often take road trips around New South Wales and interstate – do you use these trips as a source of inspiration for your work?

RD: I’m always looking for something to paint, even when I’m relaxing, the world is full of paintings. Sometimes I will see a person in one place and they will end up in a painting of another place. It’s important to take in as much as you can along the way – and the best way that we know how is to actually do the miles in the car – see what the world (or the countryside) has to offer.

CH: Your next show will be the first to be held in Dickerson Gallery’s new Melbourne space. You have travelled extensively and seen most of the world’s best known art galleries – which one did you enjoy the most?