The Big Hole In My Blog
When I browsed the blog pages on my website the other day, I was shocked to discover that I hadn't posted a thing in seven months. Time was, when my monthly blog seemed so empowering. No longer was my artistic…
Gesso Stories
As the Christmas season approached, we tried something very different at my watercolour classes. By prepping the paper with gesso and then scratching and scoring texture into it, we were able to create the ideal surface for these faux stained glass panels…
Exhibition?
I did this drawing somewhere between Lugo and Ferreira. I can't remember where exactly because the roadsigns were unreliable and the villages, tiny; sometimes with a population of one... or none. But it was about two thirds of the way into…
The Other Woman
“It’s a benign addiction,” says Chris, “Or it’s the other woman, quite often. You can’t pay attention to your nearest and dearest because you’ve got to finish this thing… and they’re jealous of that and rightly so. But we can’t…
Where Your Art Really Begins
I was gazing over a student's shoulder at a work that I can most charitably describe as 'experimental.' "I just waved my hand around and there it was!" Jenny said. "And that's exactly what it looks like...," is the response I never…
Imagining The Landscape
Vague, hazy distances or intricate, closeup details; a hillside habitation or the veins on a leaf; clouds, blades of grass, tree bark and shadows; if we can take it all in in a single glance, then why can't we work…
What colour is your sky?
This September, as we approached the final day of my two week stay at Studio Paradiso, a guest asked if all my painting holidays weren't the same, with every week like the one before and so on and on down the years…
Commitment
A few years ago, when I was offered a small show at Black Swan Arts in Frome, I decided not to gather together my past glories but to create a collection of entirely new pictures, painted especially for the exhibition. I was going to…