John Singer Sargent watercoloursAlthough John Singer Sargent is well known for his society portraits in oils, he was also a painter in watercolours mostly in his later...
VarnishingAbove is a photo of one of my oil sketches. To the left of the line, the painting is varnished, to the right it is not. Why varnish a...
ResonanceMany jokes have a grain of truth in them. Here the artist, whose works have so far failed to impress his patron, looks on patiently as...
Portraits and modelsIn E H Shepard‘s cartoon, three models stand in front of their portraits supposedly to brighten up the exhibition. Shepard pokes fun at...
Optical IllusionsThe hybrid picture above is a well known optical illusion. It is both a picture of Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe depending on how...
Unity Of Effect“Go for the tout ensemble!” At art school, my teacher, Charles Cecil was keen to drum into his students certain aspects of our training...
CopyingA few weeks ago, I went to an exhibition of French portrait drawings at the British Museum. Among them were a few drawings by François...
Painting a NudeA few weeks ago, I painted a nude. I do not paint or draw the figure much as pictures of nudes are difficult to sell and can be quite...
Self Portrait(Originally posted on December 17, 2016 by) Left is a recent self portrait. There are pros and cons to painting self-portraits: Pros: The...
Artistic InfluencesThe greatest influence on my work has come from Charles Cecil whose school in Florence I attended. Charles would often talk about his...