VENICE is my theme in this blog, and here are several paintings in acrylic and watercolour which I have made in the past year.

This is a still life collage I made by cutting out the shapes in card, sticking them to a card surface and then painting them in acrylic paint and varnishing the result. It is a small collage, just 3" x 4".

I drew these three small pictures about 25 years ago, using an empty ballpoint pen to make the drawing by pressing hard on shoebox card, and then applying wax crayons over the indented sketch, starting with a yellow followed by progressively darker colours. As far as I know, nobody has ever tried this method of work before, probably because its size is limited and the end result is unpredictable.

In common with all Londoners I love the River Thames in all its variety, These paintings are of the river near St Pauls and the Tower. I went there one day and made copious sketches which I finished at home in my studio.

Some time ago I went through
a phase of painting brightly
coloured exotic-looking women,
using acrylic and watercolour paint.
Here are three examples.

Women always make fascinating subjects to paint and here are three portraits I painted in acrylics, each with its own character.
The composition and colour are very important to me, and when I drew the figures I made them fill the painting area and touch the edges of the picture.

Who isn't fascinated by antique cars? I certainly am, and as a result I painted these three models. It was a labour of love as they were quite complicated.

Flowers are a favorite subject of mine as they lend themselves to liberal composition and colour.

These are watercolours of London streets in the Piccadilly area that I painted some years ago. They were popular with tourists who wanted souvenirs to remind them of the sights they had seen.

And now for something completely different, (for me, anyway). This abstract painting was inspired by my sofa, which, frankly is not as colourful as depicted here. I aimed for a good colour balance as well as a semi-representational subject

I painted this 12"x14" pastel portrait of a girl way back in 1992. She lived in a cupboard hidden away because I had no room left on my walls to display her. I have decided to put her on auction and maybe she'll find a new home.

THIS IS A CV THAT I USED TO DISPLAY AT VARIOUS EXHIBITIONS

I sold the painting of a Breton village (see below) and felt inspired to paint another Breton scene in a similar style, this time with boats and a few houses in the background. I had some acrylic paper left with an appealing canvas weave which offered little resistance to my brushes, Here is the result....

I decided to paint another 14"x11" acrylic and guache painting on mounting board, with a Scottish coastal theme in the same "modern" style as my painting of "Skye seen from Kyle of Lochalsh" which I painted yesterday. I had no problems with the colour balance this time and it went smoothly. I called this one "West Coast of Scotland".

I spent a good part of the day trying to paint a more abstract seascape and had a tricky time trying to get the right colour balance, having to rework the piece several times but eventually got there to my satisfaction.
I worked on mounting board with acrylic and guache mix as usual, and the proposed size was large for me, approximately 14"x11" . So maybe unfamiliarity with the size of the painting slowed me down too.
The subject of the painting is the Isle of Skye as seen from Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast of Scotland.

These are two recent works, the first is a favorite subject of mine, St. Katherine's Dock, which is just behind Tower Bridge London. This is from a photograph I took facing Canary Dock. You can see Canada House, with its pointed roof in the background.

I am considering painting some colourful abstract paintings and am half way there with the second painting which is a whimsical view of a cove in Cornwall.

Here are two more romantic views of Scotland, a ruined castle by a loch and a view of the Kintyre peninsula on the west coast.
The portrait of a lady was inspired by a kimono I saw in a photograph.

These are recent works of mine. The first one is a market stall in Romania, the second is a romantic fantasy of a woman, the third is a view of a bay in the west of Scotland and the last one is a scene of a cornfield in Brittany. All are painted using watercolour and acrylic.

HERE ARE SEVERAL FRONT PAGES THAT I ILLUSTRATED FOR THE GERMAN ARTS MAGAZINE "LESART"