Many years ago, my mum bought a frog. Not a real one, but a wall-eyed, green and black-striped, purple-bellied beanbag frog, which (when my brothers and I weren't hurling it at one another), took up semi-permanent residence on the sofa…
A long time ago, when I first began teaching art, I suggested to a class that we try our hand at abstracts. I remember one student staring hard at her paper in silence for about twenty minutes and then, setting to with the…
La Finca Paradiso is a green oasis in the Almerian desert; a 33 acre bubble of tranquility where we make time stand still so you can concentrate on your painting and drawing... oh, and your tan... and swimming... and breakfast, lunch and supper of…
JMW Turner painted one of his most famous sunsets* on tinted paper, so I thought I'd have a go, too! The experience, however, turned all my ideas about watercolour painting upside down. I mean, whoever heard of putting all those…
It's about that time when the New Year starts to feel a lot like the old one and I'm tempted to consign my resolutions to the bin along with the Christmas tree. It's easy to feel that way about your art,…
It's the last art class before Christmas and everyone has that 'end of term' feeling - you know, when you're unsure if you can concentrate on your art or not? You have a squillion and one things to do at…
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…
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…
