He's never formally studied art and was an offshore engineer, but now his talent as a painter ould lead to fame for William Innes. He talks to Woen's Editor Sarah Foster.

ON entering William Innes's flat you find you have to stop and stare. There on the wall, as large as life, is what you'd swear was a museum piece, and though you may not know the painting (it is in fact a Caravaggio) you do know it's certainly a classic.

Descriptively titled The Taking of Christ, or The Betrayal of Christ, it shows the crucial point when Judas brings about Christ's downfall with a kiss. There is a melee all around, with armoured henchmen closing in, and with their alabaster skin, the figures almost seem alive. Yet this is not the master's work but an astounding reproduction, and it's just one of many paintings done by William himself.

He may be very down-to-earth with a distinctive Geordie twang, but though he hardly seems the type to be an artist of renown, it's pretty clear that he has talent. His flat is brimming with his work - a reproduction of a da Vinci is also hanging on a wall - and every picture is exquisite in the detail it contains. The reason why the works are here is that they're destined for display and, with his maiden exhibition, William plans to launch his business.

"Where I am at the moment is that the exhibition is going to launch my website," says the 47-year-old, who lives in Newcastle. "The idea is to sell art on the internet, but there are many, many websites selling art on the internet and the quality is very poor. The exhibition is to show people the quality of my art before they buy, rather than just looking at an image on a computer screen."

The name of Henry Pelham Art might sound a little grandiose but William hopes it will attract the sort of customers he craves. In fact, although it is the name of one of Britain's ex-prime ministers, he admits it wasn't this that sparked his interest in the first place.

"I was drinking wine with my brother and I got it from the bottle of wine," says William. "We checked it out and he was the Duke of Newcastle and shared the prime ministership with his brother in the 1700s. I thought it was a nice, classical-sounding name."

How William came to be an artist was by an unconventional route. Though he had studied art at school and taken pleasure in the subject, he never thought it was an option when he came to find a job.

"I was interested in art but not to a point that I was going to do it as a career," he says. "I got into engineering offshore and that's what I did for over 18 years. I travelled all over the world working on oil and gas platforms."

With an abundance of free time he felt he had to find a hobby and, using canvases he found, he started painting. The pastime soon became a passion that absorbed him more and more.

"I got my own oils and canvases and brought them offshore and I read books and books on different artists," says William. "I started painting pictures from photographs that people were bringing in, then I started painting portraits and it just took off from there."

He grew increasingly proficient, devouring guidance on techniques and then applying them himself, but all the while he only ever thought of being an engineer. It took a fairly recent health scare to dislodge him from this mindset.

"I was working abroad and about three years ago I was told I had chronic kidney disease, so I didn't think I was going to last much longer offshore," says William. "I decided to pack it in and try to make a go of the art, so for the last three years I've been doing nothing but painting and getting ready for an exhibition because it takes a while to get a good repertoire."

His chosen medium is oils - "I like painting in oils better than anything else. I don't like doing watercolours or drawing much," says William - and he gets prints of masters' works on which to base his reproductions.

These must be true to the originals, or else they aren't deemed good enough, and William often goes to see the piece itself at a museum (he's been to most of the world's best at all the centres of great art).

His preparations may be thorough but he feels they are worthwhile. As he explains, he seeks perfection in whatever he attempts.

"If you don't have the right colour, the right proportions and the right detail, a painting doesn't look like the original. It's as simple as that," says William.

What is remarkable about him is the breadth of styles he does. He goes right through from medieval to the very latest trends and while he's currently concerned with trying to sell his reproductions, he does do some original work, which he is eager to expand. The style that William really loves is the quite intricate baroque.

"It was from the 1600s to about 1720 and includes Caravaggio, the Carracci brothers and Rembrandt," he says. "I like the depth of colour, the way they use the colour and light. I also like Renaissance art."

To help him launch his fledgling business he's amassed some fellow artists. The idea is they'll share his workload when the orders start arriving.

"I vetted some artists because I didn't want to be on my own doing this," says William.

"I had to try and find some help because if it gets busy on the website I can't paint everything myself. I've got working studios in Paris, Madrid and Rome and the artists are all academically trained."

It's early days for William's business, but its future seems secure. He's had some orders in already, purely based on private viewings and his aim is that the website will be better than any other.

"I want it to be the most informative, educational art website on the internet," he says. "There are biographies for every artist and you can pick a painting and put any one of 150 frames on it, but the main thing is I'm trying to get descriptions of every single painting."

Of course, as William knows full well, he'll never really make it big producing work by other artists. He hopes eventually to prove that he can paint in his own right but says he'll always be indebted to the masters he reveres.

"All artists copy each other's work and it's a way of training yourself as well," he says.

"If I do original stuff it will not be one particular style - I'll move from style to style because I can paint any style. Eventually, I'd like to open a permanent gallery of my own in Newcastle somewhere - I'll just see how it all works out and how much money I make. My dream really is to open galleries all over the world."

* www.henrypelhamfineart.com

An exhibition of William's work will be staged at the NewcastleGateshead Hilton Hotel this weekend. (August 25 and 26).