Yellow and Green
A little citrus still life with some stronger colours than those usually found on my palette – namely Viridian and Pthalo Blue. I was particularly interested in the light shining through the glass bottle and reflecting its beautiful green on…
Figure Painting
A couple of little figure studies from before Christmas. Fairly pedestrian in nature, but I quite like them.
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2016 (updated)
I am absolutely delighted to have had three of my works selected for this year’s ING Discerning Eye exhibition – two of my small scale figure paintings and my still life painting of sprats (a painting which has consistently, and…
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…
Pick and Mix Still Life
Five little alla prima paintings from my Easter holiday. I did others too, but they were all culled. Each painting has a very slightly different surface – some gesso, some linen, some slippy, some absorbent, and so on. This meant…
What Was I Thinking?
In my mind I had the cool detachment and sophistication of Euan Uglow’s still life paintings… what I painted was this oddity. Honestly, I don’t know quite what I was thinking, this just doesn’t work for me. On the positive…
Pig!
I’d been thinking of a still life painting incorporating something as brutally corporeal as this pig’s head for some time. My local butcher kindly put this aside for me and I painted it largely Alla Prima in one session, with…
The China Deer
It’s been quite a while since I have attempted any of the small Alla Prima sketches that I periodically like to work on. It requires a different approach and handling to my more recent studies that have taken place over…
An Afterthought of Limes
This is a quick sketch that wasn’t intended at all for today’s painting exercise. I wanted to start work on a larger piece, and began the day by arranging and re-arranging still life objects again and again. Nothing made me…
