Sketching at the Sidgewick

I have the good fortune to live close to a museum of casts, some of which are valuable antiques in their own right. Casts do not move, and it is easy to select one with an interesting pose or anatomy

Lady in a Landscape: Day 2

The second day’s work on Whiskey (she’s on the rocks) did not go well. In fact, this post is about day three, which was a day of painting I did not scrub out. The second day of painting left me

Lady in a Landscape: Day 1

I really really admire the high classical era, in which it seemed that the ideal of a painter was to make something look like life, but a little bit better. This year I am hoping to have a show with

A Look At: Romanticism

This is the Téméraire, in a famous picture by Turner that is a good view of the Romantic movement as a whole.

Blooming Huge Blue Glass Still Life: a Smudge

This is a minor piece of repair work. I do not want to put more than one more coat on the background. Ideally, I will put no more on. However, I let a brush stroke feather out too far, and

Blooming Huge Blue Glass Still Life: Day 5

I worked pretty hard on moulding cloth today. Now I just have to tweak the forms here and there, and get the colours right, which is the second stage. I am mulling a post on sea-scapes, waves, and fabric. I

Blooming Huge Blue Glass Still Life: Interlude

A quick one: this is what happens when a camera phone is falling to pieces. The camera housing itself is probably working loose, leading to loose connections. This should not be purple, as you no doubt remember. It should be