Welcome to my Blog

I am pleased to welcome you to my blog and though I am a complete novice when it comes to blogging I am excited by the possibilities it presents and look forward to showing you my work, the work that some of my students produce and to answering any questions you may have about aspects of the work, techniques used or just discussing painting and drawing.

Monday 30 July 2012

A Little Success

I have recently had a little success in painting competitions, firstly I entered the SAA's Artist Of The Year in the professional category and was awarded a Highly Commended for my pastel painting 'Yarmouth From Norton Point' and I entered my 'Great Mis Tor' painting of the Dartmoor National Park in the Patchings/The Artist magazine competition (the professional category) and this too was awarded a Highly Commended so I shall aim a little higher next year! The Paintings are pictured below for your interest.


'Yarmouth From Norton Point'


'Great Mis Tor'
Mottistone Manor Garden Drawing And Painting Workshop

These paintings were the result of a drawing and painting workshop that I ran at the National Trust's Mottistone Manor Garden last July 11th. After a damp start to the day the rain cleared half an hour into the session and out came the sun which lit everything up beautifully and made for a great days sketching, photographing and painting! Thanks to all at Mottistone especiallly the head gardener Robert and his team of volunteers for creating and keeping such a beautiful garden, well worth a visit! The highlight of the garden? All of it!
The painting above is of the top half of the herbaceous border and the painting on the right is of the herbaceous border viewed looking back to the manor house, they are painted in Artisan water mixable oils and were executed during the recent Open Studios event which I shared the lovely Quarr Abbey Gallery with my long time friend and fellow artist Ann Greenhill. Below is a series of photographs taken stage by stage during the  progress of the right hand painting which took a total of around 25 hours whilst the above painting took around 20 hours. I am running another workshop at Mottistone on September 5th.