Pollenca – Sunlight I’ve recently been commissioned to paint a client’s holiday home in Mallorca, a very attractive Mediterranean island. To be able to paint the property with greater insight, we felt it would be best to stay for several days to enable me to do some sketchbook watercolours, not just of the property, but also the small town of Pollenca. We’d never been to Mallorca before, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. However as soon as we arrived we were very impressed. The people were very friendly and helpful and the places we visited were very clean and attractive. There was some ..read more

Grey Street, Winter Morning Sunlight On Friday 19th May I’ll be having my first solo exhibition outside of our Gallery in Ponteland since before COVID. The venue is Ponteland Memorial Hall. Ponteland Memorial and Ex-Serviceman’s Hall first opened in 1922 as a memorial for the fallen soldiers of WW1. Today the hall operates as a registered charitable Incorporated Organisation and is funded predominately through its hire as a venue for weddings, parties, markets, sports activities and awards nights. It’s hoped that my first exhibition there could be the first of many annual exhibitions at this v ..read more

Grey Street, Winter Morning Sunlight My Easter Exhibition is on Saturday 8th April at our Studio & Gallery in Ponteland. There will be some new local scenes on display including Grey Street and scenes of the Tyne Bridge. We will be open from 9:30am until 5pm. Over the last 12 months I’ve been busy teaching prisoners to draw and paint in one of the regions prisons. I’ve also had the opportunity to work on some interesting painting commissions. However I’ve still had time to produce some new paintings including some from trips to Scotland last summer. North Beach, Iona We’ve published some n ..read more

Newcastle Bridges, Summer Evening In an earlier blog post I wrote about a new painting of the Sandhill, Newcastle which features the Tyne Bridge. I spoke about another painting I’d started of Newcastle Bridges on a Summer Evening. It’s a scene I’ve painted before, however on this occasion it’s a much larger watercolour painting. It’s one of my favourite views of the quayside as it takes in all the famous landmarks. The Millennium Bridge, Sage and Tyne Bridges are all featured. It also provides me with the opportunity to combine losses free brush strokes for the sky and river with more carefull ..read more

Grey Street, Winter Morning SunlightNewcastle For much of my career as an artist I’ve had the good fortune of being able to work in the city of Newcastle. This has enabled me to see the city through the seasons and in all kinds of weather conditions. One of my favourite views is looking down from the base of grey’s Monument at Grey Street. A sunny, winter’s morning provides the perfect light to produce Newcastle Art. In this new watercolour of Newcastle’s Grainger Town, Grey Street glistens in the winter sun. Morning commuters make their way past the burgundy screens of the now closed Pret a M ..read more

Angel of the North, the week it went upWorld War One The 15th of February was the 25th Anniversary of the Angel of the North. I recall going to the site a few days after it went up to make studies. Being February, there had been a lot of rain so there were puddles and mud. My initial impression was that of a World War One scene with broken fences, palettes, water and deep tracks off heavy plant machinery. My first painting was similar to the one above, a slightly side on rear view, the Angel silhouetted against an ominous sky. I’ve since painted it several times over the years in different med ..read more

Santa Maria della Salute by John Singer Sargent Susan and I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Turin to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. As we were wandering about I noticed a poster for an exhibition of paintings by Monet and Picasso at Palazzo Barolo. I decided to pay a visit and was not disappointed. Although there was only one Monet on display there was a stunning oil painting of the Santa Maria della Salute by my hero John Singer Sargent. I’ve painted this wonderful church on many occasions but I’ve never painted any of the detail. I found myself captivated by this breatht ..read more

I was recently asked do a watercolour demonstration for Hartlepool Art Club. They have a fabulous venue in an old church which holds art exhibitions. I had been invited before around 2015 when I did a painting of Newcastle’s Theatre Royal in the rain. The theme this time was still cityscapes so I prepared three paintings for the evening. One of the watercolours was this one above of the Sandhill, Newcastle. It’s a scene I first painted in the spring of 2007. It was released as a limited edition print titled Quayside Morning Mist which sold out. I really only had time to do the preliminary was ..read more

Newcastle QuaysideTyne Bridge Print I regularly have online sales from folk wanting a print of the Tyne Bridge. Orders come in from all over the world. Since my first print of one of my Tyne Bridge Paintings, I’ve had to publish quite a number of different versions. These scenes have been taken from all kinds of angles. A popular view is this one taken downstream from the Pitcher and Piano. You may remember a blog post from May 2022 when I wrote about one of the painting exercises for Junction 42. At the time I was developing a series of watercolour painting projects to go in the Creative Art ..read more

Sketchbook Watercolour “Sitting” In the previous blog post I was telling you about our trip to Dubrovnik in August 2022. I found the area near our hotel in Lapad inspiring to paint. There was something about the contrast between the rugged rocks and the turquoise waters very engaging. I was also taken by the trees that could provide shade for the sunbathers basking in the sun. Although we did make several trips into the old town of Dubrovnik, we spent most of the time relaxing near the hotel. There was an easy walk that hugged the bay around Lapad that took you to various other hotels. We woul ..read more