Life Drawing One of the frustrating aspects of Lockdown has been the lack of Life Drawing classes. For several years I was able to attend weekly life drawing classes where I could develop my Figure Drawing. Usually I would tackle the subject in oils if it was the same pose throughout the evening. It was […]
On our Painting Holiday in Italy in May 2015, one of the guests asked me to paint a portrait of her husband Arthur for his birthday present in August. It was to be a surprise so she asked if I could work from photographs. I said that I could, but if possible I would prefer […]
A few weeks ago I was asked to write an article for the website of a new initiative here in the North East called Drawing. Drawing? is a 6 month long, region wide programme of exhibitions and events. It aims to explore drawing in art and culture and also in other areas such as science, […]
National Portrait Gallery One of the “must see” exhibitions of 2015 has to be the John Singer Sargent, Portraits of Artists and Friends. It’s on show at the National Portrait Gallery, London. It is accompanied by a terrific new book by Richard Ormond. He is the co-author (with Elaine Kilmurray) of the Complete Paintings of […]
My next Watercolour Course is being held at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland starting Friday 30th January-6th March. Alan Reed Studio & Gallery This new Watercolour Course lasts 6 weeks. I will be covering many different aspects of what has been described as the most difficult medium to master. However, even though watercolour painting […]
In 1999 we had a week on the Greek Island of Aegina. Whilst exploring the island I came across the ruined Temple of Aphaea and made some studies. Last weekend I was doing a watercolour demonstration for a local art club. As part of my demonstration, I started a small watercolour on a 14″ […]
For the last few weeks I have been continuing with my daily discipline of a sketch a day. I try to do this for 20 minutes to an hour, 5 or 6 days a week, usually in my Moleskine Sketchbook. Gouache Painting Most of my studies have been made with a charcoal pencil. However today […]
I’d heard the Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Kiss is currently on display in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities. I’ve been painting its stunning architecture and famous streets for over 20 years, producing over a dozen limited edition prints of Auld Reekie. Last week I was dropping off some paintings at a gallery nearby so […]
Since painting windmills on location in Norfolk, I’ve enjoyed tacking this unusual subject matter. Earlier this year I travelled to Holland to work on some painting commissions for a client. The client wanted some scenes that were typically Dutch. My research took me to this particular scene where I did two small watercolours on Arches […]
I’ve enjoyed a couple of very enjoyable painting trips using my Sketchbook in Norfolk in recent years following in the footsteps of one of my painting heroes Edward Seago who lived and painted around Norfolk. For those of you who are interested in landscape painting, there are some excellent books available about this immensely gifted […]