Painting with Charcoal

Hello and welcome to another episode of Diana Lectures about Art, with a special guest, this chamois leather. No, really. It’s got battle honours. I just said in this post on colour that if you are going to paint with

Still Death Life

I have a love-loathe relationship with the work of Cezanne. His use of colour and his careful placing of paint make his best works full of vitality and interest. His use of the picture plane like a modern Fourth Wall

Sold! Five items

I said goodbye to several of my favourite pieces last night. An old friend with decent wall space told me to ‘bring blue on blue and anything else you are proud of’. I am glad it is someone I like

Drawing Inspiration: Designing the Show

I have not got a single style. Right now I produce paintings in many different ways, and most members of the public, unprepared, assumed that the gallery was showing the work of several people. The best hint that it was

Drawing Inspiration: Drawing to a Close

While Drawing Inspiration was on, I did not blog on the show itself, because it was featuring so largely in my mind. Here are a few snapshots of the set-up process, rather than a long description with loving close-ups. ‘I

Studio Guests: Little Friend Susan 1

Over the past weeks I have spent several days in the company of teenaged artists, letting them play around with my equipment. I had a bright GCSE student who practiced in pencil, charcoal, ink, and paint, and then I had

Printing Mountains: Original delivered

I have handed the originals of Mountains, Pietro, and Blue-on-blue to my photographer, the very talented Peter Mennim, who is an artist in his own right. Other than a discussion on the finished surface of the oil painting, there was