Still Life – Jug

I painted this over several days, with a long break in between for Christmas commissions and then for other work that came up. I started with an hour-long study in pencil, and measured that up against a photograph to check

Methods of Portraiture

I recently persuaded a friend to sit for me for several days while I tried out painting techniques. She was writing, which meant she had her eyes down, but she was still enough that I could get a good likeness

Thinning paint and painting layers

This is an expansion to a couple of Twitter posts I made as @DianaProbst. Oil paints can be put on in layers, but because they are slow-drying, there are some rules that have to be obeyed for a painting that

News from the Studio

The big news that I have is the Eat Cambridge festival, now running towards its conclusion; I was fortunate enough to paint some of the illustrations for the brochure, including the main picture on the back. The pdf is available

Red Curtain

This is a thumbnail for a foot-square deep colour piece. The blue on blue image and its companions are popular, and a couple of people who have seen them have encouraged me to work on something deep red. I have

Seascape with Castle

Over the first week of July, I had a student in my tender care. We went through a lot of charcoal, as I moved her from line drawing towards tonal work. The good thing about tone is that it leaves

Ballet Dancers

These are quick impressions of ballet dancers, in part inspired by Degas. The colour choice was dictated by the palette I was using at the time. Background is pure Paynes Grey. Shown in the order in which they were painted;