Stairway

Stairway
25.5 x 25.5cm
oil on board
Beside the Wave
SOLD

Sometimes all that I want to paint is patterns and shapes, lines and colours.  A subject like a staircase and a window present a complicated pattern of light and dark and exercise the mind while painting.  Apart from all that mind work its a beautiful stairway with sinuous curving banisters and light reflecting off the polished floors.

The Compost Heap

The Compost Heap
28cm x 28cm
oil on board
Harliquin Gallery

My aunts garden in Devon, she hates me painting the untidy bits but these are the places that I love the most.  It is the start of spring, the wheelbarrow has probably been like this for the most of the winter, bean poles ready to be used, all making lovely shapes and lines in the dappled sunlight.

Rosies Chair

Rosie's Chair
51.5cm x 41.5cm
oil on board
SOLD

This is a room that I fell in love with.  It is a hot afternoon.  In France.  An old house full of memories, a room full of still air and old dusty furniture.  Rosie's chair is beside the window, perfectly placed so that she could watch the street, see what was going on.  Bathed in sunlight the chair almost glows while the rest of the room retreats into comfortable shadows.  Murmuring voices and distant music come from the rest of the house, dancing into the hot afternoon air like a day dream, like Rosie remembering when she was a girl.

The Last Apples

The Last Apples
44cm x 34cm
oil on board
Harliquin Gallery Taunton

This was in the autumn, old gardening baskets with a few apples, the last to be gathered, filling the air in the conservatory with the wonderful perfume of autumn gardens.

An English Garden

From the Shadow Towards the Light
24 cm x 24 cm
oil on board
Harliquin Gallery Taunton

Small simple little plein air painting.  There is nothing finer than sitting in deep shade painting in a beautiful garden.

The Hills Beyond

The Hills Beyond
charcoal and chalk on brown paper
45cm x 30cm
Beside The Wave

More from Provence, that was such a productive trip.  I love working in charcoal on brown paper it is a great way to immerse yourself into tone.

Alpine House



Alpine House
35cm x 35cm
oil on board
Beside The Wave

This is one of my favourite paintings so far, and a favourite place.  My Grandfather was a very keen gardener and grew alpines.  In the winter he could be found pottering away in the shelter of the greenhouse, tending to his alpines.  He would be wearing his tweed gardening jacket and a tie with his pipe close to hand.  He was a lovely gentle man, born in 1900, he died about 30 years ago and I still miss him.  This is my aunts alpine house, I like to think that some of her plants are the descendants of his collection.  The smell of creosote and garden twine still makes me think of him.

The Conversation

The Conversation
oil on board
30cm x 25cm
Harliquin Gallery Taunton

Sometimes the things in a room can hold the reonance of what went before, like a lingering perfume.

The Baby's Room

The Baby's Room
oil on board
24cm x 24cm
Harliquin Gallery Taunton

I am wondering if anyone, who might be looking at this will know where it is, or was.

A Quiet Afternoon

A Quiet Afternoon
oil on board
49cm x 39cm
Harliquin Gallery Taunton

There is this room, it dwells in my memory, its a long time ago, I think it is my grandmothers house and I must have been about 6 or 7.  It is very peaceful, very quiet save for the ticking of a large clock, the sun comes in gently diffused by net curtains and dust motes softly dance in the light.
That's what this is about, and it is always a Sunday in this painting.

Want Some Coffee?

Want Some Coffee?
oil on board
40cm x 50cm

An odd kind of found still life from some time spent in France, unfortunately my photographing has bent some of the lines!
Another painting that is showing at the Harlequin Gallery in Taunton.

Painting and More Paintings

Vases in the Scullery
oil on board
61 x 50cm or  24 x 19 inches

I keep saying that I am busy and it doesn't seem to be letting up, in fact its getting better all the time, the busy projects are yielding much fruit and all is very happy in my art world. 
I thought, as I use my blog as a kind of archive for my own information (and because I really don't want to give up on my blogging efforts, I have been doing it since 2006) I would begin to post up all the paintings that I have been doing over the past few months. 
So here they will appear over the next few weeks, which should get me into the habit again (of blogging, not painting, don't think that habit will disappear!)
This painting is of a friends boot room, or scullery and her marvellous collection of vases. 
This is framed and (I believe) still available in the Harlequin Gallery in Taunton.  If you have a burning desire to own it then give them a call or if you would like to see it, and several others pay them a visit, its a lovely little gallery with some wonderful jewellery as well as paintings.

Big Paintings and TV stuff.

Cat on a Hot Thin Quilt
120cm x 150cm or almost 4 foot x 5 foot

It is a big painting! And it has sold!  Which obviously makes me very happy, not only because it keeps bread on my table and paints in my studio, but also because it has gone to such a loving home.  It has been brought by a lovely lady who wanted to use the money, left to her by her sister, for something that reminded her of her sister and made her feel peaceful and happy.  How wonderful is that, when one of your paintings can do that for someone.
I am spending some of my time busily in the gallery these days, cooking up cunning plans, selling lots of beautiful paintings and trying to master the mysteries of a till!  We have fantastic artists, the best in the west, if you haven't seen our blog its here the gallery blog, I write it and will be writing much more soon, follow it if you are interested in us and our artists.   Also the Gallery has got involved in the making of a TV programme called "The Hotel Inspector"  We are supplying artwork for the refurbished hotel, for the big reveal plus a still wet painting (painted by one of our artists) of their extraordinarily beautiful gardens and I think I may get filmed doing the hanging of all the paintings...don't watch it in wide-screen, my bum will look huge up a step ladder on TV!!
If you want to see the hotel and a couple of pictures of the artwork choosing process go here the Meudon Hotel and like their facebook page while you are there.  I think it would make the perfect venue for some painting holidays.