The Blog

I’m learning to not mess with my paintings. What I’m trying to do in a conscious way is to lay down a stroke of paint and then leave it...

Claude Monet said: “To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at. When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects...

How copying can make you a better painter, faster. I suspect that all of us who love to paint want to improve, and to do so as quickly...

Here is a recent painting I did of a peak near Mont Blanc, along with the original photo. As you can see I made some changes. What drew...

How imagining the finished painting helps you get there… I’m off to paint the Matterhorn in April, and so I’ve begun to research the...

(How to breath new life into failed paintings) Everyone who paints knows about failed paintings. We all have them. And that’s quite...

I suspect that you will have used a viewfinder of some kind or another to help you to choose your view and isolate your subject. Perhaps...

Traditionally the end of one year and the beginning of the next is a time for looking back, reminiscing, mulling over what you did, saw...

Here’s a fascinating way to boost your creativity and your imagination. I have recently been re-reading a watercolour painting book from...

Over the many years that I have been painting and teaching art online and in person, there is one subject that crops up time and time...

I’ve been playing around with ways to use the Portable Painter palette so that I can use it for gouache outdoors. The problem has always...

I spend just a few moments most days scrolling through Instagram looking at the artists that I follow, those that inspire me to make art....

I’m in Paris and cruising down the river Seine on what equates to a bus, but on water. This bus, called the Batobus, sails along a...

I’ve just been to the wonderful new exhibition at the National Gallery in London called “After Impressionism – Inventing Modern Art”. ...

I’m sitting here watching Wimbledon and wondering what drives some of these tennis stars to perform in the way they do. And also how this...

Have you ever had times when you were itching to paint, but you couldn’t think of anything you wanted to have a go at? Those times when...

I have to admit that I never used a sketchbook when I was first learning to paint. I would find a photo of something I wanted to paint,...

Edgar Degas once said “Art is not what we see but what you can make others see”, and I think this was at the heart of impressionism. As...

Here are three really interesting ways to find new subjects in the landscape. Have you ever wandered around looking for something to...

Come along with me as we take a walk with the dogs into the olive groves and paint in a semi-abstract way. September 2022. A hot day in...