Hedgehope In 2009 I climbed Hedgehope, the second tallest of the Cheviot hills, for the first time. It was a cold, wet, windy dull day but I couldn’t resist tackling a quick sketchbook study of Cheviot. It ranks well up there with one of the bleakest locations for en plein air painting. A year later, […]
Painting Commissions Over the last few years I’ve received a number of commissions from clients who have a home in Italy. They have asked me to do a painting of their property. Each building has been quite different in terms of size and location. However, they have all had their own distinct charm and appeal. […]
Buy Art Fair In 2009 I was exhibiting at Manchester’s Buy Art Fair. I decided to do an original watercolour of one of Manchester’s famous architectural landmarks. I titled it Manchester in the Snow. It was of the Printworks that overlooked the venue of the Art Fair that year, the Urbis building. A number of weeks before the […]
Norfolk Burnham Overy Mill is just a short walk from Burnham Overy Staithe in Norfolk. It’s a delightful area for any landscape artist to paint with the low lying land, estuaries and big skies. We’ve stayed there as a family for the last two years. I’ve seized the opportunity to paint on location, rising early […]
Tate Britain Last night I received a tweet containing a link to the Tate blog by Alison Smith from one of my followers Jorgelina Vega. Alison is lead curator of “Watercolour” and Curator (Head of British Art to 1900), Tate Britain.The blog contained a fascinating little video by Mike Chaplin. It’s one of a series he’s made […]
Umbria In the autumn of 2006 my wife and I travelled to Italy for me to do a special commission of a clients property in Umbria. After doing the preparation sketches, we then went on to Tuscany to a little town called San Quirico d’Orcia. It’s close to the towns of Pienza and Siena. As […]
Breamish Valley I have recently received a commission to do a watercolour painting depicting the Breamish Valley near Ingram. On Sunday I decided to do an initial research trip after church to remind myself of the location and general geography. I had driven through it a couple of years ago when I climbed Hedgehope, the […]
Venetian Light watercolour The Tourist A few days ago I was watching the film “The Tourist” starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie We were on an plane travelling back from one of my overseas work trips. Most of the film was set in Venice which made it very watchable. It triggered off many memories of our […]
Dunstanburgh Castle Last summer I decided to have another video taken of me painting on location. I asked a friend of mine, Gavin Dowd of Word Out Productions to film me painting Dunstanburgh Castle. I was hoping for a summer evening like the one captured in the painting which I reproduced as a limited edition […]
Burnham Overy Staithe One of the greatest thrills as an artist is to have a painting trip where one can paint a variety of subjects on location. My last two trips to Norfolk have been just that. When Painting in Norfolk the subjects range from the estuary at Burnham Overy Staithe to the lavender fields […]