In January 2026 I was kindly invited to The Longshed in Woodbridge, home of the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company, to lead a sketchbook session with a group of schoolchildren. It was chance to look at and explore drawing their full-size replica of the famous 7th-century Anglo-Saxon royal burial ship from Sutton Hoo. It is an amazing project and well worth a look We looked at some simple ways to draw the ship, including finding the main shapes, using quick thumbnail sketches and noticing perspective, overlap, light and shade. The Sutton Hoo ship reconstruction is an extraordinary project, and drawing offered the children a chance

Over the past term, students across my Suffolk art classes have been exploring landscape painting. The work reflects a wide range of experience and individual approaches. This was my first term teaching at Monks Eleigh and so many of students there were starting painting with me for the first time. What I love about the work is the diversity of approaches. Across the classes we have worked on composition, colour, atmosphere, distance and simplifying the complexity of a landscape. There have been some great work this term. With the hot weather keeping us indoors it was great to see students tackling a bigger 2

Its not easy this painting a day thing! – So I have a bit of catching up to do, I have carried on painting but have a few to upload – so hopefully get back into the swing of things over the next week or so. I really like this chrome sugar bowl – I nice oppertunity to practice reflections!

Oil on Board 8″ x 8″ I had run out of my Ampersand Gesso Boards – So for this study switched back to a slightly larger primed board. Since starting this recent batch of still life paintings, one change I made to my palette was including Phtalo Blue. This is a really powerful turquoise sort of blue, very popular with Bob Ross when he was painting his skies. What I really liked about this study was the opportunity to include a small strip of really saturated Phtalo Blue behind the satsumas – As the complementary colour to orange – I think it really makes

One design I idea I have been thinking about this week is the problem of straight lines. Some books I have read on composition suggest that it is a good idea to avoid straight lines because the eye travels across them too quickly. These small table top arrangements can often present a straight horizontal line at the bottom of the canvas, this add another problem as it sort of echo’s the horizontal at the bottom of the painting. Generally I don’t over think these compositional ideas but they are good to consider. Breaking up the straight horizontal line is a good idea if possible

I am pleased to be exhibiting in this years Success After Stroke Exhibition in Sudbury. I have shown work there several times now – It is held every two years – Its a great show and the church makes an excellent venue. Here are the paintings I have put in – Framed up by The Lamden Gallery in Ipswich. Two studies from my life drawing class and a study from my Modern Art Term – Inspired by Cubism. Its something a bit different – But its a painting that has grown on me after painting so I thought it would be nice to see

Thanks to Karen for bringing in this great looking squash. She left it behind in my felixstowe class – so it has now been the subject of about 50 paintings across my classes! – With this study I went back to the light object against a dark background! – I really liked the way the reflected light bounce back into the shadows

This one was really enjoyable to paint – I think it has more the feeling of a sketch than a detailed study – but I was pleased with the colour scheme and markmaking. Every now and again I like to try and limit my brushstrokes and stick with a bigger brush – Limiting your brushstrokes makes you really think about each mark.

Oil on Board 6″ x 6″ So this week I was talking about how to overcome a sequence of less successful paintings. It is also interesting to note that in the book ‘Mindset’ by Carole Dweck, she mentions that sometimes success can be as much an obstacle as failure. You do a great painting and you think wow – that was easy, and then a small part of you wants to stop there! This was almost the case with this little study. I have had experience this before but it is rare, the idea comes easily, the set up is easy, the drawing almost

Oil on Board 6″ x 6″ Starting to enjoy working with these more over head arrangements! – Last week I was mainly working with palette knives – So I lost a bit of momentum with my Daily Painting! – So looking to back into the swing of things!

Todays painting marked another stage of experimentation. I was looking at food photgraphy. The suggestions was that they like two main camera angles, 45 degrees looking down and about 10 degrees (almost overhead) – both angles move away from the traditional table top arrangement with a ‘horizon’ where the table meets the wall and use the ground plane to divide the space. So this was my project here and I divided the space with some coloured bits of card. Partailly inspired by one of favorite Still Life artists Sara Sedwick -(look up her demos on youTube & she has a book)