A Busman’s Holiday
This summer, during the worst of the British heatwave, I was in Madeira, where the sun rises late and its heat is tempered by balmy, sea breezes. I've visited the island regularly over the past few years, but this time,…
The Sky Is The Limit
¡Hola! Here's the Montgó massif in Spain, a breathtaking lump of rock that rises 750 metres above the villa where I based my first painting holiday in two years, amply illustrating, in two photographs, my constant adjuration to students of…
From penciller to painter
A fortnight ago, while Franklin was thrashing about in frustration, looking for anything Eunice might have missed, I drove down the A303, with a watchful eye on every swaying tree and both hands firmly on the wheel, to spend a…
Making light of play
Back in October, my partner, Petra and I were lucky enough to escape to Madeira for the half term and after verifying our COVID credentials and collecting our free bananas at the airport, spent ten blissfully uneventful days in a…
Sculpting With Colour
"Le plaisir delicieux et toujours nouveau d'un occupation inutile."* I'm very fond of this quotation from Henri de Régnier, which Maurice Ravel inscribed on the title page of his score for Valses Nobles et Sentimentales. The composer may have been satirising…
Back To Life?
Contemplating the return to real life classes With the support of many of my students and with the help of Zoom, Google Classroom, a new iPhone, iPad and Mac, I've been able to continue teaching throughout the pandemic. We've pretty well covered…
Come to T with me!
On Watercolour A to Z, our online journey through the watercolour alphabet, we looked at how to describe the form of an object using just two colours (A), then with three or four more, allowed them to bloom and flow freely…
When is an iguana not an iguana?
Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Red, Duochrome Blue Pearl and Indigo with body colour and scratching out. The answer, of course, is when it's a croissant! You may be familiar with the recent viral news item about an iguana that was spotted…
Landscape Heavy?
Within a few days of publication, my book, Tate: Master Watercolour, was named 'Book of the Month' by Artists & Illustrators magazine. I was delighted, of course, but that quickly turned to disappointment when I discovered that the first precious sentence of…