Bird 0904

Walthamstow Arts Festival offered our art studios Inky Cuttlefish stalls so I had the chance to sit and work out in the open while showing some of my work. I managed to get myself organised enough to draw up 4 bird images and completed painting all 4 on the day, intense but fun and lots of people stopped to chat and ask questions.

Happy Birthday Pops

I was running out of time to paint something for my daughter Poppy's birthday so this painting had to be executed quickly and as a consequence is a bit slapdash. It's a bit clown-like but hopefully isn't a complete failure...alas Poppy didn't like it.

Surrounded by obstacles and the moon

This is quite a large square painting which turned out much more colourful than I had intended. It began as a much more simple painting but the figure crept into it. I like the idea that an indiscriminate red mark lurches across from one side of the painting to the other linking the two sides of the image.

Girl at a Window

Many artists have painted an image of a young girl or woman at a window from Dali, Cassatt, Vermeer, Balthus and of course Rembrant's painting at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

I painted this quite quickly and liked the idea that someone is taking some time to look out onto the world, either a garden or a street. I like the geometry of this image where the girl's body lies at the meeting point of 3 lines.

Face with Red Scarf

This is a very quick painting I did on paper a couple of years ago but i've recently worked on it again with dark glazes.

Thin, oily, transparent layers of glazes give the painting a glow and often help bring more life to a painting. I love using dark glazes, they add a richness to the work very quickly without losing detail.

Blue Sky and harbour

Back after an interlude of about 9 months. I've still been painting while enjoying Poppy and Ben's wedding, child-minding my gorgeous grand-daughter Eliza and renovating my second property since moving to London 18 months ago.

This small painting was painted in oils on a block of wood 20cms x 20cms and has been sold.

Fighting the need to make it look 'right'.

Often when I'm working quickly I'm concentrating on shape, colour, harmony and interesting paint marks. when I stand back and look at the work the 'mistakes' jump out and I have to work hard at not 'tidying it up'. This painting is a good example of that but I do like the geometry of the room which frames the couple.