A great exercise in colour mixing, application and softening the edges to create distant branches, texture and the illusion of depth and movement. A bit too fiddly this size though for my liking.

Inspired by my visit to the ‘Binswood Allotments’ last summer…Featuring pumpkins and butternut squash in a very stylised, vintage setting…that wasn’t planned - just kinda happened!

A great exercise in colour mixing, application and softening the background to give the illusion of depth, alowing your eye to focus on the butterfly.

Using Hellebores from the garden. Drawing, cutting, printing, overlapping, overlaying…using the printed glass Jug as a starting point for the design.

A great excuse to include some beautiful apple blossom in this Blue Tit painting. Softening the edges to create distant branches, fluffy feathers, and the illusion of depth and movement.

Trying to stay loose, keeping the underpainting showing through for the branches gives a lovely mixture of warms and cools with a very limited palette click here to see progress shots .

Loving this palette! Drawing, cutting, printing, overlapping, overlaying…an ever evolving process where the outcome cannot be planned or foreseen.

Life Drawings. Charcoal on paper 5-25 min poses.

Cockapoo - Oil Paint on Smooth Panel Board. Another commissioned 60th birthday gift featuring some fun feature close-ups.

Painted from life - my inspiration was a bunch of flowers that my 15 year old son bought me for my birthday this year!

This was a rework of a painting of ‘forget me nots’ that I did ages ago! you can just see them in the background! I kept them really soft focus and added the Nicotiana (tobacco plant) in sharper focus over the top.

A commissioned 60th birthday gift. This one now lives in Edinburgh…when I asked the lady how on earth she heard about me from Scotland she said - I saw a Facebook post you made 3 years ago! The power of social media hey!

Brother (from another mother!) of Nixon…Otis’s owner spent her Christmas money getting this one done for herself which I was really touched by.

Such a monumental pose, and his name was the perfect excuse for an injection of colour!

A 60 minute still life pose, painted live and some quick pastel sketches.

Wise words: ‘Take pleasure in the little things’. I think about this often.

Big juicy looping brushstrokes that are all streaky with different colours…I love working this way…and the secret?…lots of paint, scruffy brushes and the balls to put down a big expressive mark confidently and then leave it - no fiddling!

This is a slide I use when i’m teaching show the importance of ‘brush selection’ when painting. Experimenting with your brushes gives you unexpected and sometimes unusual results!

I started this one with washes of transparent colours, building up to the thicker opaque paint at the end. I love the colour palette - the warm reds and oranges against the cool dusky purples - yummy!

A 45 minute hour still life pose, painted live. 12” x 8” oil on board. There are not to many models that can hold a ‘headstand’ pose for 5 minutes straight! See post for more details…