Summer rain

I STRUGGLED INTO MY LAYERS, picked up my light sketching kit and off I went up into the hills behind where I live. I wasn’t the first to arrive; halfway up the hill I could already hear the cries of e

Every painting’s varying subject matter and scale offers us distinct opportunities and challenges. Before I start any project, I like to consider what I want to convey, what opportunities and challeng

This sunny landscape of oak trees in Chatsworth Park in Derbyshire is a wonderfully inspiring view, masses of Autumnal foliage back-lit by the warm sunshine. But how can we recreate that warmth with t

My life in the cheese world stemmed from a geeky fascination with microbial life and how those living microbes can change a food product. I started painting through a fascination with soil microbiolog

Autumn brings a splash of golden warmth, when leaves start transforming from green to rich golds and russet reds. It can be quite daunting to know where to start when interpreting a mass of foliage wh

Many painters struggle when painting from a photographic reference and the problem often is, that we can easily assume that if our painting does not match the photo, it is a failure. The issue is an i