A highly textured cow painting takes time to dry!

You can see how thick the paint is, on this piece. The first full layer took two weeks to properly dry, and this is another layer of bright oil paint - I like to use contrasts and hues to create the illusion of depth, and to make the entire surface of the canvas interesting to look at. This is a cow with a sweet countenance and a little attitude in her stance. Looking forward to getting her finished this week.

A really nice email to recieve!

I was very pleased to hear from Janine, one of my lovely artists from the Bosworth Festival, yesterday: Thanks Janine!

“I really enjoyed the workshop and was amazed at my painting. You made it all so simple to follow and everyone's paintings looked so different but fantastic. I enjoyed your cake too - although I couldn't eat it all! I tweaked my painting at home and thought you might like to see the final outcome.

Many thanks for a fabulous and inspiring afternoon.”

Its always great to hear that artists enjoyed their day and to see the beautiful finished piece is wonderful. Im sure you’ll agree, its gorgeous!

A rainbow Cow painting triptych

large rainbow coloured cow painting

Today at the studio I hope to finish this colourful guy. One of the things that I do as part of my process, as well as creating the big shapes first, is that I work intuitively on the first layers. I don’t try and worry too much about the final result. This then gives me something to respond to in the following sessions. So I have added all the colours that I wanted to add and the wild and woolly hair. Today I will work back into the paintings and edit, tidying up some of the edges and leaving others, hopefully ending up with the final cow that I envision. Watch this space, I’ll post another photo of the final piece.

I enjoy painting on three panels, the finished effect is cool and contemporary and you get different looks depending on whether you leave a gap when you hang the paintings. I’m currently feeling very glad that I have rented this size of a studio, I remember during the pandemic, when I was painting at home and trying to create a big piece like this in the spare room - not easy!

Forest Sunlight Painting

This piece is 100 x 100 cm I think - I have yet to measure it

I really love getting inspiration from the beautiful National Forest surrounding my home. Especially during the early Spring when the sun is low in the sky, as it makes stunning lighting effects for my work!

  • Update* This piece was sold, through the excellent Ferrers Gallery near Ashby de la Zouch. Please see my originals page, or join my art collectors mailing list for newly upcoming forest scenes.

Portrait of a Cavalier

Portrait of a Cavalier
November 24, 2017
This portrait is one that I painted with an exhibition in mind a couple of years ago, and she now hangs on the wall of the reception in Mutley's of Ashby boutique. I used loads of 'creative license' during the painting of this piece. I referred to the photograph  (below, kind permission of photographer Kerli Toode) for the main concept and some of the details , and then added my own ideas to create a piece with individuality.

cav to paint.jpg

Here is the reference picture that I used for the Cavalier Spaniel painting, by kind permission of photographer Kerli Toode

The finished oil painting is 60 x 80cm in oils on stretched canvas