Exercising the Jaw Muscles

The steady trickle of junk mail through the letter box – under normal circumstances deposited straight into the recycling bin without much thought – has proved to be far more useful of late in its provision of alternative surfaces upon which to paint. I thought it might be mildly amusing to depict some chocolate, of…

Scruffy Man Paints Himself

This self portrait was made a couple of weeks ago, on 29th January 2015. Painted in acrylics on the back of some mount board, it (perhaps unsurprisingly) depicts myself. When wanting to make a figure study from life the self offers a certain convenience. Keen-eyed observers will note that I made little effort to ‘brush…

Thinking Outside the Recycling Box

I have recently started recycling materials – mainly cardboard packaging – as alternative surfaces to canvas or paper. This move probably has its origins in the production of Keep an Eye on the Amaryllis #5, which was painted in acrylics on cardboard, and a self portrait painted on the back of some mount board. However,…

An Art Demonstration: Painting Dennis

A friend of mine, Dennis Spicer, recently asked me to look after one of his art classes for a couple of weeks whilst he took a break. At the end of my first class sitting in for Dennis, I was asked to demonstrate my working technique to the students the following session. As most of…

Blue Lilies in a Blue Room

On a recent visit to a supermarket I was taken with some blue lilies, which I thought might make an interesting subject for a new still life painting. How natural they are we’re not too sure of – they certainly struggled to open. However, I did enjoy putting this painting together. Unaware of the slow…