December work

It's very mild in London at the moment; it makes a great change to work on the Christmas lights without your fingers freezing off. Another advantage of this time of year is that you can get a (relative) lie in as sunrise is about 8am - on the minus side, light is very precious as it gets dark so quickly.

On wednesday the light was superb; one of those winter days where everything looks good in London.  I headed up to St James' and then to Parliament square, then on to Piccadilly.

I had to work very quickly to get the light down;on St James' street the brightness of the traffic lights and lights on the cars rapidly made way to the early morning reflections on the windows of the buildings.

In Whitehall, working into the bright midday sun, it was wonderfully tonal.  The only colour was red from the telephone box and endless stream of buses

 

I finished up in Piccadilly at sunset where the traffic lights and car lights became more pronounced as the light faded and the glorious Christmas lights in Bond street came to life again

 

Autumn work and my studio show 12-15 November, Wimbledon Art Studios

It's been a great autumn for painting; the colours in the parks and streets of London have been inspiring.  I have particularly enjoyed the intense late afternoon colours; the strong golden light reflected in the leaves. I have spent a great deal of time by Queen's gate in Kensington Gardens where the light on the base of the Albert memorial constantly changes

 

There have also been some fascinating events to pastel, the lime trees by Stamford bridge made an interesting contrast with the blues of the Chelsea crowd

  The crowds gathering for a state visit made an interesting spectacle and I inadvertedly made £8.32 by accidently leaving my pastel box lid on my stool!

I have often found that, after walking miles and miles looking for an interesting composition, some of the best are not always the most obvious

The light hitting the side of the buildings on the Fulham road was mesmerising, as was the late afternoon light on Clapham common

Next thursday sees the opening of Wimbledon Art Studios winter show.  This week has been busy sorting out framing and autumn cleaning of my stuffed studio; its well worth visiting with the work of over 150 artists over four days (12-15 november) - I'm in blue 402

Autumn Exhibitions coming up

It's been a very busy year, painting trips in Venice and the South of France and London.  The weather has been superlative - that is, until this week!
New work to be put up shortly and shows coming up are:

Art for Youth, Mall Galleries, this week 5-8 october http://www.artforyouth.com/Home.html

Small Paintings Group, Russell Gallery, Putney, just by Putney Bridge, Lower Richmond Road http://www.thesmallpaintingsgroup.co.uk/exhibitions 15-21 october

I will be showing my work from the South of France, the intense light and strong colours were intoxicating.

Also, the brilliant and distinguished portrait painter, Andrew Festing, has painted my portrait as part of his Faces of London exhibition at Messums, Cork Street this week. It's a cracker, showing me working away with my pastels. All details on the Messums website.

Hello 2015!

It is with great joy I put on my new January and February work - the new collection is just beginning

In the depths of winter I am transfixed by colour and colour combinations. Lime greens and blues in a Tite Street still life, clashing oranges and pinks in flowers.

I have been on a painting trip to Pembrokeshire - snow made an appearence briefly and it was a race against time to paint the shadows!

I'm also starting a series on the Pembrokeshire coastal path - the sense of space, scale and the magnificence of life there is truly awesome.

The good news is I have 3 pastels in the annual Pastel Society show at the Mall Galleries, off Trafalgar Square 24 February - 7 March http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/look-again an
I'm also exhibiting 4 paintings in the Small Paintings Group show at Piers Feetham Gallery, Fulham Road (just opposite Stamford Bridge football ground) 26th Jan - 29th Feb http://piersfeethamgallery.com/current.htm.

In November my wonderful fellow painters from Wimbledon Studios put together the Art 50 show.which I participated in.  Here is the video

http://www.art-50-sw6.co.uk/index.html