My boys’ principal obsessions this summer holiday have been, in no particular order, Star Wars, Lego, Star Wars Lego and Lego Star Wars. So, with that in mind, in the few hours I had to myself while the boys were at a summer camp today, I thought I’d have a bash at capturing a piece…
Author: simonbirtall
I am an artist and art tutor based in Merseyside, UK. I paint in an Impressionist-influenced technique in oils or acrylics on canvas and make drawings in pencil, pen, pastels and more.
Sir Topham Hatt, a Tribute
I completed this little painting, depicting a Sir Topham Hatt (a.k.a. the Fat Controller) toy figure, last week. It’s another in a series of paintings depicting those toys belonging to my two sons that have particularly fond memories attached to them. Both my boys were (and thankfully occasionally still are, though they are growing quickly)…
Postman Pat gone Delft
A wee while ago, I set students at one of my art classes a light-hearted challenge to design their own Delft tile. The challenge was intended to inject a bit of variety into the classes and to see what individual, personal designs each student could come up with. We didn’t work on tiles, but the…
Up the Manchester Ship Canal
Another painting made as a demo for one of my art classes. The theme of the class was ‘the industrial landscape’. I chose to make a painting based on a photograph taken one sunny summer afternoon in July of 2022. It depicts the view from the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port looking east along…
Kicking a Ball Around
This painting was begun as a demonstration piece for an art class, and then worked up over a few more sessions. It depicts my eldest son kicking a semi-deflated ball around a local park, and was based on a photo I took capturing the moment a few years ago. The painting was made in acrylics…
Drawing Upon Life 