A dish of Damsons

We have had an amazing crop of Damsons this year, wich we have bottled, frozen, pickled and made into chutney. I have made sure that they have also been painted.........

Reading by lamp light

This one has posed more than a few problems; I thought it would be a good entry for the DPW challenge, 'painting the night'. At the moment, I have a certain amount of pressure to produce paintings to exhibit in an upcoming exhibition. This one felt good but the foreshortening made it pretty well a 'wiper'. Lesson learnt from this: keep to a small format to make sure it works before spending many more hours than necessary to produce a reject:(

Americano with milk on the side

An americano enjoyed whilst sitting in the sun, looks an inviting way to spend time people watching. Isn't it fun that a moment frozen in time can be made into a little painting:)

Veteran is on Parade

I managed to get a full page in our local newspaper yesterday which was hugely exciting. Sales peaked as friends and family got a copy and just in case I picked up some extras:)

Oil sketch of Gavin

This oil sketch of Gavin was painted from life in approx two hours. As the sketch began to take shape, I began to think how the model resembled of a young roman centurion; my friend, on the other hand felt that if we added two little horns he could be a faun... someone else felt a young Bob Dylan!

Damsons and daisies

These flowers are osteospernum but I decided to call them daisies in the title as it had a better ring to it. When I checked the spelling I see they are also known as cape daisies, so that's a bit of luck:) The damsons are beginning to fall off the tree outside, so they were asking to be included. I rather wish I had not put in two the same size, always tricky....

Unfurled and sliced

Transmitted light seen through fruit, is always a popular theme with artists. Although this is not a new piece of artwork, (I am busy working towards a forthcoming exhibition) it has returned to the studio before being sent forth again. As artists we have expectations for our creations to work very hard on our behalf:)

Scotch bonnets and summer schools

My daughter always has a knack of arranging things beautifully and I spied these scotch bonnets in the yellow bowl in her kitchen. They conjure up the sunny caribbean and happy times spent in Trinidad and Tobago. It may be sunny here too, but it also that crazy time during the summer break, when I run two summer schools in consecutive weeks. They are incredibly busy so posting on the blog and uploading new work gets a little neglected. They finish later this week, so I should get back into my stride again. Watch this space.....