It's a rest day in the FIDE masters and, with no chess to watch, I've been 100% focused on painting. Today's subject is Roy Scheider starring as...
Paintings Named After
Got The Rain In My Face
The FIDE Candidates tournament is on at the moment and I'm already addicted after three of the fourteen rounds. So I'm watching the chess all...
I’m Thankful For My Country Home
OK then, time to put into action some of the lessons I learned from that Jean Hirons book. It's going to be a Queendown Warren landscape in soft...
Country Home Guitar Solo
The coloured pencils have taken a back seat for a while now, so time to give them an opportunity to do their stuff. I was watching a YouTube video...
Yeah, Life Was Just A Bet On A Race Between The Lights
Back to business and it's the business of creating posterised watercolour portraits for the benefit of any visiting PAOTY judges. Pulp Fiction was...
The Invitation
Will it be third time lucky? This will be another made up landscape. And the colours will again be Payne's grey, Mayan blue genuine and burnt...
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
A soft pastel landscape feels well overdue, especially when soft pastels have been put forward as my medium of choice for LAOTY. So that's what...
And It Makes Me Wonder
Looks like I'm taking a break from LAOTY and PAOTY prep this week then because today I fancied giving the crystalline water colours their first...
The House Of The Past
Right, let's get back to pastel landscapes and show those LAOTY judges what I can do. I went for oil pastels today as it's still cold. I prefer...
From All Of These Signs Saying “Sorry But We’re Closed”
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly was on the telly the other day. It's one long gallery of painting ideas but the shot that sprang out at me this time...
‘Cause I’ve Run Every Red Light On Memory Lane
Today it's soft pastels. These feel more like a summer medium than a winter medium and, with oil pastels being best suited to the winter, the two...
Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
Yesterday's painting took a while and left me a little drained so I was tempted to take a day off today but I have a physio class tomorrow that...
Rainy Day, Dream Away
It's another oil pastel landscape today. I found a photo online of the arch that connects Hartlip Church to the orchards behind it. It's an arch...
Foxy Lady
And now the Artist Of The Year run up starts. I need to building up my collection of watercolour portraits and pastel landscapes for PAOTY and...
A Secret Worship
For today's painting, the first serious painting of the year, I thought I'd try out something Christopher Stephen recently tried out on YouTube,...
Then Came The Lawyers, Then Came The Rules
Someone in the village laid down a challenge. He asked if I could paint a portrait of his husband David in the style of Amedeo Modigliani. After...
Telegraph Sang A Song About The World Outside
OK, the hiatus is definitely over now. I only have three chess games left on the go, one of which is about to finish, so enough of my energy and...
New Rising Sun
I’m back in action today after three days off. With the plan being to check out the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday, I really should be...
These Rivers Of Headlights, These Rivers Of Rain
I’ve been meaning to do a painting like this for a while, as there are a number of lines in Telegraph Road screaming out for something like this....
Buddy Guy: Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues
Today's painting is a portrait of guitarist Buddy Guy, based on the cover of his Damn Right I've Got The Blues album (Amazon link here: as an...