I recently came across a photograph of a view in Manchester that I saw almost instantly as a watercolour painting. This does happen every now and then but more often than not I have to look at a photo and try to work out how I would paint it, which is a much more conscious… Read More
I was feeling a bit deflated after last week’s Pintar Rapido adventure. As I was lacking in enthusiasm, motivation and inspiration, I decided to give my myself and my brushes a break and tackle something that I’ve been putting off for a long time now. Back in November, I did a little video introduction to… Read More
I hope that everyone’s enjoying the festive season and managing to spend time with loved ones and to find the time to do the things you love too! I’ll keep this brief because it is Boxing Day and I’m sure that we all have things we’d rather be doing that reading (and writing) blog posts!… Read More
After last week’s somewhat rampant start to the Artists Open Houses (in terms of sales that is!) – the 2nd weekend has been much more sedate. A lot more visitors, matched ironically by far fewer sales. Never the less, having started off last week by displaying the paintings that I’ve sold I feel somehow beholden to… Read More
With only nine days to go until the opening of our Park Gate Collective artists open house things are beginning to come together. The weekend was largely spent cutting yet more mounts, getting frames ready and whitewashing walls. I took the measurements for ‘my’ wall and did a quick 1:100 scale mock-up of the space and… Read More
Longer term followers may recall that last year I dipped my toe into Brighton’s annual Artists Open Houses bonanza. The Open Houses coincide with Brighton’s main arts festival and the Brighton Fringe Festival – both of which are the largest of their kind in England. The Artists Open Houses run each weekend in May and… Read More
And so to London for the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. It was the opening weekend and, by the time I got there, already thronging with visitors. My visit also coincided with a demonstration by David Poxon RI and it was a real treat to punctuate my viewing of… Read More
On the weekend that the clocks here in the UK leapt forward an hour – extending the days and enabling me to put my bike lights into storage until the autumn – it seemed only appropriate to celebrate the extra daylight with some especially daylight filled watercolours: I’ve painted this view before a few times… Read More
Although I’ve finished my plein-air DIY watercolour project that I previewed last week, I’d really like to you to be able to see it ‘in action’ so I’m going to wait for some more clement weather before I photograph it. In the meantime though, as I couldn’t wait to try out my new set up, here… Read More
I was wary of returning to the scene of one of my favourite paintings of late, but I hoped that a different composition combined with everything I’ve learnt and experienced since, would be sufficient to make it a worthwhile exercise. As a reminder, here’s my painting of a sunlit café in a Barcelona side street,… Read More
