Charlie. Another small portrait
Here’s a new, small portrait that was painted alla prima style over a few short ad-hoc sessions. These are poor quality phone pics unfortunately, and the actual painting does have much greater subtlety in colour and brushwork. I used another…
Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition
I’m very pleased to announce that two of my still life paintings have been selected for this year’s Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition. To quote the press release… The Royal Institute of Oil Painters is the only national…
More Doom (What’s Wrong With Me?)
Another dark and doomy little painting from this dark and doomy summer! Actually, it wasn’t planned to be so miserable. It wasn’t planned at all. With little idea of what to paint, I looked over the still life shelves, filled…
Sunny Flowers on a Rainy Day
As I wait for this new still life to dry, get a coat of varnish and then be better photographed, here it is on the easel. The flowers are Rudbeckia, grown and sold at our local farm shop. They are…
A Selection of Small Life Studies
Here is a selection of the very small (postcard size) oil studies that I have been doing over the last few weeks at Sarum Studio. All from life, I was using the time to experiment with different supports – various…
Escape From The Hungry World of Ghosts
This is a relatively quick portrait of a young man called George (completed over 4 short sessions) which I am really pleased with. George is thoughtful, quietly intense, and buzzing with ideas. He is a poet and I asked him…
Future Past
This recent oil portrait was completed in around 12 sittings – the shoulders and shirt being the biggest headache of the whole thing! How far to develop them, how to give the pose some more psychology using form alone and…
Year end, new work
After too much fussing and tweaking, I have finally reached a resolution on this larger still life painting that I started before Christmas. It was an organic-ish composition whose foundation item was the brown bag. On the day that I…
Sophie, the original Brown Hound
This painting has been a bit of fun that I’ve been working on here and there for a little while. Mainly I’ve worked on it when suitable paint from another project needed using up at the end of the day….
Conversations with the Past
This is a very personal little portrait for me. It is based on a black and white photograph from the 1930s that I have of my Grandmother. We were very close, indeed my grandparents lived with us for most of…
