About

A Teacher; I put the bins out on a Wednesday and turn the heating off- it’s not actually that cold.
I also make pictures, some are dry, some smell and others, move.

I started this blog over 17 years ago to record the developmental stages of oil paintings that I was learning. The aim was to supplement my teaching. Suddenly, I found myself teaching oil painting to Sixth Formers but did do any myself. So back then, I took a photo of each painting at the end of each day to illustrate progress. Many school artists meet problems during the development of a picture and immediately scrap it to start again. As a teacher, this is extremely frustrating as it avoids an essential part of the creative process. Repeatedly restarting pictures is a serious hindrence to students’ progress as artists. To this end, I wanted to show what to do with pictures that have faults, how to avoid them and how to correct errors.

I’m often more interested in the process than the images themselves. I like pictures that reveal clues to the process of making them. Even more delicious are the clues that reveal mistakes and the struggle to succeed. My best pictures are the ones where I was gripped by fear of failure during their construction.
I ride bikes and as they get older, they need repairing more often. Look in my other blog to see what adventures I have on two wheels or with a rucksack.

1st oil painting in 10 years.

Posts on here are sometimes made on my mobile, typos slip by more often. I apologise for them.
I get satisfaction from writing this blog even though hardly anybody reads the posts. It’s mainly for me, it’s about putting my thoughts into words in a public format. That fact affects what I write and hopefully avoids self indulgence. There is also satisfaction for me in reading previous year’s posts. I can then answer the question ‘what was I doing five years ago today?’.

I have split this blog now it’s in its second decade. Bikes and hikes are out in a new blog, [See Here] and only arts and home decor will remain here.