"Lady In White"

Oil on Paper 23.5" x 33"
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A lovely lady - a joy to paint.

"Forbidden Fruit"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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The larynx is often called 'Adam's Apple'; the term invented to describe the 'forbidden fruit' that got stuck in poor Adam's throat. What a veritable cuckoo's nest we've all been as busy-as-bees creating ever since his mythological bite. Ho hum.

"Miniature Jug with Apple"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Here's a tiny little jug sat next to what seems, at first glance, an enormous apple. I rather liked the similarity in sizes.

"Meditation"

Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"
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This person's expression is reminiscent - to me anyway - of the total letting-go of thought sometimes 'achieved' during meditation. Perhaps she was 'doing' just that when I painted her? I don't know.

"Chocolate Espresso"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Here are two of my favourite things.

"In The Moment"

Oil on Paper 18" x 22.5"
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I'm clumsily paraphrasing because I can't remember his exact words, but I think the French realist artist Bouguereau once said something to this effect: "There is a lifetime's worth of paintings to be had from just the human form." I've often felt that he had a point.

"Five Grapes"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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The principal reason I like grapes is that one can mess around with them and transform them into a pretty splendid drink.

"Red Hair"

Oil on Paper 14.5" x 18"
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Sometimes a model just strikes a pose perfectly - and beautifully.

"Small Espresso Cups with Satsuma"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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An ellipse is always a pleasure to paint (if one is a masochist).

"Clementine Peel"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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This is a subject that often attracts me, partly because the compositions I can evoke simply by fiddling around with the peel are virtually endless.

"Port"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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The Royal Navy get a touch sniffy if you pass this stuff around the table in the 'wrong' direction. Their dinners I've attended have been such unspeakably boozy affairs I'm always left staggered that anyone remembers which direction is 'right'. But etiquette is the thing for them, no matter how sloshed they get. Decorum is all, don'cha'know.

"Spoon"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Sometimes things just go well. Easy. Loose. Lovely.

"Cup, Egg and Spoon"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Many artists will tell you that less is more. I've been painting since I was a foetus and yet I still occasionally make the mistake of ignoring the 'Stop' sign and labouring my work. This time I took notice of it. I'm pleased that I did.

"Shallot"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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This painting, like so much of my work, was all about paint: moving it around.

"Echalion Shallots"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I cook a lot with these because I feel they contain the best qualities of both onions and ordinary shallots. And I paint them often because I just love those 'old master' burnt sienna colours.

"Asparagus Bundle"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Listening to John Martyn - one of my lifelong musical heroes - whilst painting this, I felt I should leave the image relatively 'loose' in visual empathy with his laid back, effortless style.

"Shallot with Chestnut Mushroom"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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With blizzard conditions outside I sloped off to the studio (so what else is new?) and continued with one of my regular portrait commissions needing completion. The day was ended by painting these two 'individuals'.

"Head of Garlic"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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A head of garlic may not appear terribly fascinating to some, but I hugely enjoyed painting this today. Simple things amuse simple minds - innit.

"Nuts"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Composition fun - an endless game.

"Hazelnut Chocolate and Wrapper"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I painted this in a frenzy of activity within an hour or so (forgoing my normal regular procrastinatory breaks for tea or wine or cat stroking), not because I was anxious to eat the reference material, but because it was fast changing shape under the studio lights.

"Garlic, Ginger and Chilli"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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The holy trinity! These three ingredients frying away in a pan make a perfect base for many a dish, I often think. And they smell good too.

"Lemon with Driftwood"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Here's some more of the sinuous driftwood I collected recently. Someone told me recently that burning driftwood is a dodgy activity because it becomes carcinogenic, producing dioxins which are not included in the list of 'best things to inhale'. So up in smoke goes yet another pleasure: lighting fires on beaches.

"Winter Evening at Seaton"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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One crashingly beautiful wave after another rolled up to me today. It was a visual - and visceral - feast.

"Chestnut Mushroom and Garlic"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I was going to have a bath earlier, but now it will just have to wait until next month. This painting held an exigent (thank God for my thesaurus) quality, and simply insisted fruition.

"In White"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Over the years I've been fortunate to have many wonderful people willing to patiently 'sit' for me. It's a more difficult task than it seems: thankless and boring - and that's just chatting to the painter, never mind the modelling bit.

"Driftwood"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Man Ray and Duchamp messed around with the idea of 'found art', or as the French say, 'objet trouvé'. Objects not considered to have much aesthetic value were those usually chosen. Here's something I 'trouvéd' a couple of days ago on the beach.

"Mushroom in Shot Glass"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Half filling a tiny shot glass with water and then placing a shiitake mushroom on the rim, followed by an hour or two painting the result in a cold studio, is my idea of a neat evening. I'll grant you some people may - just may - not see eye-to-eye with this concept, but each to his own I reckon.

"Whitsand Bay Clouds"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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It wasn't entirely unlike Siberia down at the beach this afternoon as the sun was starting to set. And painting with gloves on wasn't entirely ideal either. After a frozen hour or so I shivered my way back to the chapel and loaded the big open fire with wood. I defrosted eventually, but it took a while. It was the colour combination - as I've said before somewhere below - that attracted me to paint this very simple scene. Cool blues and hot yellows work for me.

"Red Apple"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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You think you're doing OK with your work - painting is where it's at - and then you make the simple error, as I did this afternoon, of listening to that God-like genius, Beethoven. I play him a lot, but today for some reason it really hit home how music moves one at the deepest emotional level; a place that even the greatest of visual artists cannot access. Rembrandt and a few others come close, yet the unearthly power of music just can't be matched in paint. Oh well - ever onwards. Here's an apple.

"Onion in Shot Glass"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I didn't seek for any deep old meaning in this painting. It was, once again, just about the simple pleasure of "pushing paint around."

"Mug of Tea"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Here's one of my favourite chunky mugs, together with one of my favourite beverages (apart from those which include the words "please drink responsibly" on the label, of course).

"Serviette Ring with Grapes"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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This is a typical close-up of occasional after-supper scenes at my chapel, except that in reality the table cloth is usually strewn with food and wine spills. I really must find myself some civilised guests.

"Two Herring"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I painted these this morning... then shipped a portrait to a client... then collected some work from my framer... then went back to the chapel... then cooked the above for dinner... then drank some wine... then worked on a large narrative painting. A typical day. We artists live exciting lives.

"Thai Chilli with Fish Knife"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Last night we baked two fresh large sea bass with fennel and chilli. Delicious!

"Mushroom with Shot Glass"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Yet again I painted this little small shot glass (there'll be trouble if I hear snoring out there!) and filled it with some wine this time. I felt that the hot red integrated with the warm ochres in the mushroom quite well.

"Shiitake Mushrooms"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Sometimes you just need to get as 'loose' as possible in painting. The subject matter helps. These two lent themselves perfectly to a painterly approach.

"Egg in Shot Glass of Water"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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My apologies to my fan for a while away from this art-blog - I've been busy painting larger stuff. Today, as often before, the shapes in this small glass of water tempted me to paint them; visually interesting.

"Egg and Spoon"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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This was a rewarding composition to paint today. The large 'inorganic' metal serving spoon and the small 'organic' egg seemed to work well together.

"Espresso"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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This little two inch cup was an enjoyable painting this morning - another of those that sort of "did itself." I am congenitally unable to get through a day without drinking at least one of these. Wine and whisky occasionally help too. Thank God I don't know any crack cocaine dealers.

"Bordeaux Red"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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This foil cap and cork were protecting a very decent - recent! - bottle of claret. It would have been rude not to paint them.

"Mackerel"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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Over the years I've caught buckets of these common fish, usually a few miles out, messin' around in my boat in the sun, with a beer or two (or three if pressed). They're delicious when cooked on the same day (the mackerel, not the beer); eat them the next day and you're asking for trouble. I'd like to say I caught this one, but I didn't - Waitrose did.

"Plum with Satsuma"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I sense there's a deep and meaningful narrative in this painting somewhere, although I'm stuffed if I can find it. So you will, I'm sure, be gutted to hear that I have nothing profound to say. I just liked the colours man.

"Avocado"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I've always liked the contrast between the rough leathery skin of this fruit and its smooth oily flesh, so I thought I'd slice one sideways today and paint it. This individual had a quite unusual stone colouring.

"Night Thoughts"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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A friend came to the studio this evening and, whilst sipping some wine, sat herself in front of one of my strong studio lights, which shone through her hair. It was a big mistake. She spent the next hour completely motionless, and wasn't allowed to touch her glass at all. Bless 'er.

"Approaching Winter at Whitsand Bay"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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The tones and colours in the water were surprisingly similar to those that I painted last night. I felt the sea was displaying a visual prophecy of the gathering clouds of winter. Let me assure you, it was a cold old day.

"Night Sea"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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There's something mysterious, secretive, labyrinthine and just plain magical about the sea at night. I was painting when darkness fell, with my feet and easel sloshing around in the wet sand, but it was a wonderful evening.

"Plum with Milk"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I suppose this is an unlikely combination - most of my paintings are, come to think of it - but I do very much like the cold white against the plum colours. In essence, though, this work today was more about the visceral pleasure of moving paint around than it was about the subject matter.

"Three Carrots"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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It never fails to amaze me how 'real' food looks so different from the sanitised stuff you buy in supermarkets. The other day the girl at the check-out was struggling to find a price on her machine for some fruit I was buying with no packaging around it, so I suggested to her that her boss should get together with his farmer suppliers and work out a way to grow crops with bar codes. She wasn't amused.

"Orange Peel"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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My extraordinary intellect - which so many have remarked upon enviously - enabled me to structure this stunning composition as a vehicle to nudge the viewer into allowing his or her psyche a chance to observe the so called 'reality' of an orange, its peel and its environment. I have, as you can so easily see, brilliantly created a complex existential visual metaphor, relating to the quantum-mechanical hypothesis that all matter is nothing more than a potential until observed by consciousness. Determinism and separability are illusions. Newton was wrong! Neat eh? (OK, I'll admit it; it's just an average painting of an orange. Could someone please let me know where I left my medication..?)

"Sea at Talland Bay"

Oil on Board 8" x 10"
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I was, yet again, painting down at the sea today, irritated by wind (the sea that is; not me!). My efforts were spent in trying to capture colours, predominantly - as always a huge variety of them in the swell.