The fear of failing

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

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

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

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

Capturing the immediacy of fighting and the writhing bodies of soldiers, as well as keeping narrative clarity, proved enormously difficult for painters depicting battles before the advent of photography. Michael Hall reveals how they rose to the challenge

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