It has been ages since I painted a still life, and, being in a still-life mood, I assembled some objects in the house and focussed on my small coffee set which I bought in Istanbul years ago, together with a fruit bowl and a wine bottle.
I broke up the background to enliven the piece and the result is above...

Polperro with its crowded houses and boats, is a favorite subject of mine.
On a whim I used Fabriano rough paper which I haven't used for years....a top quality cotton paper, slightly off-white, somewhat mellow, and a pleasure to paint on.

Markets always fascinated me, with their colourful interaction of goods and people.
Here is an ink and watercolour painting of a lively flea market in Brittany, France

A client of mine requested me to paint a picture of Lake Garda, one of the lakes in the north of Italy.
I had to use a different palette from my usual range as the subject was very bright and colourful.
I decided to use a selection of different photographs of the North of the lake, which is mountainous, to help me with the composition.

I fancied painting a loose watercolour today of a cityscape, and found a photo I took some time ago of a working class area of Naples, Italy.
I used just four colours...a Warm Sepia, Windsor Blue, Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red with a wet-in wet technique on Arches paper.

I always find that new tools or paper stimulate me to work .
I bought a beautiful little pen containing waterproof ink with a microfine tip yesterday, and, of course, I was dying to try it out.
Fine point lends itself to architectural subjects amongst others, so I sketched a Venetian scene on Arches paper and used watercolour paint as a wash.
I then tried a little figurative work which I called The Beergarden.
Here are the results

A Spanish friend of mine commissioned me to paint a picture of the beach near her home in Carnota, Northwest Spain.
This was a challenge as there were few features in the photograph I worked from, and the success or failure of my effort was dependent on my capturing the light and the colour perspective. I was allowed a little "artistic licence" but didn't abuse the privilege.
I used watercolour and a heavy weight Bockingford paper.
My painting and the original photograph are shown above...

Polperro, Cornwall has a magic of its own and this is an ink and wash painting of the harbour.
I abandoned my usual flamboyant colours and restricted the palette to browns and bluish greys, with a touch of green umber for the plants and trees, leaving the white paper to catch the light.

A short trip to Cornwall inspired these two paintings.
I tried to capture the light, the higglety-pigglety houses, and the lively harbour life.

A few days ago I felt like a change from using guache and acrylic paint, and decided to work purely with watercolour on Arches rough paper using a looser technique and a restricted palette.
I chose two Italian subjects...a street in Rome and a Venetian canal scene.

London, my birthplace, has an astonishing variety of sites from Theatreland to the mighty Thames.
There are four theatres in this picture of lively Shaftesbury Avenue, which contrasts well with the view of HMS Belfast and the magnificent Tower Bridge

The races make a wonderful subject with their action and colour.
These paintings were fun to paint and
I did a large series of them, of which these four are a sample

Women are a source of inspiration for me to paint. From the seductive to the maternal there is a mystery about them which I try to covey in my work.

Here are some nude studies
of three models I painted a few
years ago. One decided that she felt uncomfortable being ogled in here, so she disappeared.

CAFES always fascinate me and I have painted cafe scenes many times in varying styles

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.