It’s been a lovely weekend – almost wall-to-wall sunshine. But it didn’t start too well. On Thursday I took the train to London to pick up my painting from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. I then went on to The Waterman’s Hall near London Bridge to see The Royal […]

Soon after I started my 5 year apprenticeship as a lithographic artist in Reading designing biscuit tins and tea caddies for Huntley and Palmers, a new artist arrived on the scene. His name was Vic Granger and was, at the time, my artistic hero. Vic, was a journeyman designer. Not only was he a really […]

After many hours of careful corrections I’ve managed to save my painting of the Royal Flueologist, or at least disguise the mini-disaster I mentioned on my last blog. There’s still probably around 100 hours to go before I finish it completely but here’s a close up of his face. It’s life-size, by the way. On […]

That wasn’t exactly one of the words I used when I nearly ruined my painting on Saturday morning. The air was blue! In more ways than one. Having spent over 100 hours so far on a large watercolour of the Queen’s chimney sweep I’d masked most of the painting so I could airbrush the deep […]