ARTS / Picture Choice: William Green, the artist, explains why the work of Jackson Pollock encouraged him to get on his bike

I first saw Pollock's work in a French art magazine when I was at the RCA in the mid-Fifties and then at the Whitechapel show that Bryan Robertson organised. It led me to treat the activity of painting as an arena - to stretch across the canvas. The idea of disturbing the surface of the paint came from Pollock, though I never copied his dripping. I used other means: bicycles and fire. Summertime: Number 9A (right), in the Tate Gallery, is one of his greatest. It led me to be completely non-figurative. It was a liberation.

William Green's 1960s work is in the Sixties show at the Barbican. Recent pieces are at England and Co, 14 Needham Rd, W11 (071-221 0417) To 27 Mar. Tue-Sat 11am-6pm.

(Photograph omitted)