The plein air season has probably been here for a while, but the first chance I had to get out was a Sunday at the end of March, and a visit to Bath it was. I’ve seen this view before and knew it was the one I wanted to do.  It’s quite wide though, as […]

It’s that time of year again, when I’m always hoping I might pull off a decent last minute painting to enter into one of the popular competitions. But even if I did, I wouldn’t have the confidence that I’m seeing it objectively enough to be right about it so soon after painting. How are […]

I like to work sometimes with a quite vague, simple idea of a composition, and allow surprises to take the painting in a slightly different direction.  It’s a way of getting some practise at a particular subject whilst keeping it fresh and enjoyable.  Also, any training in ‘adapting to circumstances’ with watercolour is time well […]

Step by Step – Southwold fisherman’s huts and boat. I thought I’d share the process behind this recent painting. The composition was chosen from hundreds of photographs I took on a visit to Southwold and Walberswick a couple of years ago.  I didn’t feel much amendment was needed to the composition, although I did […]

Yep, It’s becoming noticeable, and I even heard a blackbird properly singing the other day. I’m pleased to see some rain, and it’s good to have a mild patch too.   January has disappeared very quickly, and at this rate it’ll be time for me to head outdoors painting again, if we have a reasonable […]

Just past the sewage works – thankfully – I get to one of my favourite spots.  It’s a place I go every year, and I’d like to run a workshop here one day, based on trees.  There are great examples of huge old pollarded willows (I think), amongst other types, set alongside a meadow and […]

This is a view towards Westward Ho! from above Appledore. I was lucky to visit the area for the first time in June this year. In an ideal lifetime every year should be memorable. For me this was the year I went properly professional as an artist/tutor, and therefore it probably will be. It is […]

At long last, a painting I’m properly satisfied with. It is a feeling that was getting worryingly far away, into the past.  The painting is not perfect, of course.  No such thing, but the fact that it is connected with a certain feeling, and just went as well as I could have hoped considering how […]

Low tide at Appledore, Devon. For sale. One of the restrictions I like to impose on myself is to use no more than 2 washes for a painting.  By which I mean, no part of the paper should be returned to and overpainted more than once. It’s simply a matter of retaining transparency and that […]

Here are a few recent demonstration paintings, done for art groups and in one case during a 1-2-1 tuition session. The Lake District one was done on Saunders Waterford, mainly for a change.  Being used to Bockingford I was, as ever, slightly tempted to fiddle too much in the foreground owing to the heavier sizing […]