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So a sunny July in Mid Devon I am  sitting in my lounge enjoying Wimbledon, and writing about painting sunflowers, there are worse jobs! I thought I would share my sunflower painting with you. Some subjects come more easily than others, sunflowers , for me, are a tricky subject. I have thought about why and it is I think their colour, yellow has one tone, so it is tricky to create the darks. So I have struggled with making them sing , I wanted a very loose painting and a real celebration of summer, so here goes..... Firstly I sketched out the...

As many of you will know , who follow my FB page or Twitter account I have just returned from a week in Cornwall. We stayed in a cottage overlooking the wild Cornish sea and watched everyday , remarking constantly on what changed and how we could look at it without getting bored, for hours.. We also walked the cliff path and swam in the sea, seeing it from different angles and view points . Finally when we weren't staring at, or swimming in the sea, we were in galleries looking at other artists interpretations of it. In one gallery...

Oh my, what have I done ! The sea, what an amazing, complex, huge , frustrating and wonderful subject. One that has caused me hours of joy and hours of frustration in equal measure, and one that I return to time and time again especially when I am near the sea. It is a need in artists to try to capture an essence of what they see, like picking up a shell from a much loved beach,.Trying ( I think) to take a small piece of a beautiful place and time and carry it home to see you through the more...

The weather here in Devon ( in fact all over the UK) has been incredibly wet , especially for June. Today , at last, the sun has made an appearance, which is great as we are heading to  our beloved Cornwall for a few days , but I know lots of you , like me are a bit fed up with all the rain, so much for 'Flaming June' Given the rainy weather, I have found myself wanting to paint ducks and here is another version of a white duck for you to have a go at painting.  Firstly I...

if you follow my work, you will already know that I enjoy painting birds, today I thought I would be as detailed as possible in showing you how to paint a goldfinch. They are glorious birds, almost too exotic to belong in the UK but we enjoy them all the same, the bright flash of colour on these soggy early summer days is uplifting. I begin as always by planning my work, decide what you need to do and in which order you are going to do it. I start with a sketch    Then I look at the markings on...