The watercolour above is a scene I first painted back in 1980 when I was an art student. I remember selling the original watercolour to one of my lecturers at the time. Little did I know that 23 years later I would have a Studio & Gallery 2003-2008 upstairs in the building on the right hand side of the painting.
The Lit & Phil stands for the Literary and Philosophical Society which was founded in 1793 as a place for the people of the North East to meet, talk and learn. Its members were many of the leading thinkers and innovators of their day and early presidents included Robert Stephenson, Lord Armstrong and Joseph Swan. The present […]
The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, known by the locals as the High Street, has to be one of the finest streets in Europe. Over the years I’ve painted it many times. I’ve captured some of its famous landmarks including St Giles Cathedral, The Tolbooth and of course John Knox House. Many of these watercolours have […]
Paintings of Tyne Bridge have always been on demand and I’m always on the lookout for a different angle. This particular view titled Quayside Morning Mist was inspired from seeing the Tyne Bridge one morning after a business breakfast meeting at the Slug & Lettuce. The morning had started off dull, dim, dark and damp. […]
Figurative Artist One of the current featured paintings in my Spring exhibition is Shell Catchers. It is a limited edition, hand embellished canvas. The artist is Sherree Valentine-Daines. The print is no longer available from the publishers. It is doubtful that there will be many copies left in retailers. Sherree Valentine-Daines is a hugely popular […]
Since my first visit to Oman in 2007 I have always taken my hand made sketchbooks to paint on location. Whenever I’ve shown these studies to various folk, they have always commented on the tactile beauty of these small watercolour paintings that are held together as a mini art collection. The plan for several years […]
TIP 10 Study People In my first tip I talked about drawing from observation. Drawing people isn’t easy, particularly if they are not deliberately posing for you, but the results can be rewarding if you stick at it. A useful tip is to draw people walking about without actually looking at the paper. These can […]