Peppered With Embarrassment
A couple of weeks ago, I was happily lost in thought over my painting when the 'phone rang. I still had the best part of the day ahead of me, so I didn't begrudge this early interruption to my work, but when I…
Is it a line? Is it a plane?…
At the end of August, I was asked by Frome Town Council to record a visit to the town by the Academy Of Urbanism. What the Council had in mind was a series of sketches that could be presented to the Academy as a memento of their visit; one that might persuade them to…
Kandinsky’s Hissing Paintbox
"O please, gentlemen... that is a deep violet, please, depend on it! Not so rose!"- Franz Liszt conducting his orchestra in Weimar in 1842. Like Bernstein, Beethoven and Rimsky-Korsakov, Liszt was a chromaesthete and experienced a rare form of synaesthesia (a…
Painting Between The Words
Jenny Holzer's solo exhibition at Hauser and Wirth, Somerset is predominantly about sex, war and death; a potent and often harrowing combination that the artist seems to treat somewhat at a distance with her trademark text-based work and minimalist aesthetic. Nevertheless, as you walk through the…
Pencil To Paint
The aim of my Pencil To Paint course is to explore the essential differences between the two disciplines and shed light on why many of us find it so difficult to move between the two. I meet many skilled draughtsmen and women who…
Going Digital At Dillington
For the more jaundiced amongst us, the phrase Adult Education might conjure up images of a cheerless school classroom, repurposed for half-a-dozen lovelorn grown-ups with a feigned interest in lampshade-making. The last place they'd think of would be somewhere like Dillington House; a Somerset County Council-owned Adult…
Pencils At The Pavilion
Last weekend, Frome Sketchers visited Hauser & Wirth Somerset, a brave and bold addition to Iwan Wirth and Manuela Hauser's stable of international art galleries. What's different about this venture, however, is the breadth of the couple's vision. Not only is the…
Life Is Short, Art Is Long And Lunch Is Even Longer!
I've just returned from seven fantastic days at Studio Paradiso in a secret location, beyond Carrara, where every town and village perches on its own wooded slope and Michelangelo's white marble gleams like snow on the mountains.
Salt Of The Earth
After a slow morning at the villa, sketching in the sunshine, we drove to Marsala to the Florio family winery, where we discovered that the legendary dessert wine comes in many other guises too. Besides wine, Florio's stylish shop also sells ceramics, preserves,…