Where does the time go? Why can I remember so little of it? *Paul Weller, Town Called Malice Look at that photograph. The happy smile of a fulfilled, contented dad at the end of a summer’s day. Me and all four kids in our back garden, taken by my lovely…

Some of my favourite life drawings rendered in coloured pencil. I tend to go through phases of trying different media in my life drawing practice but, until lockdown in 2020, I hadn’t picked up my coloured pencils for several years. They were always in the drawing bag that I took…

The irresistible combination of line, colour, and verve The practice of life drawing has been, for over forty years, central to my work as an artist. A successful piece requires a harmonious combination of line, perspective, composition and painting skill. But there are always some undefinable elements at play in…

Some of my favourite life drawing trios. Occasionally I will have a particularly productive life drawing session that results in three or more decent drawings in the same style. When this happens I like to group them into a triptych for presentation. The medium and approach may vary between different…

Some of my favourite life drawings rendered in coloured pencil. I tend to go through phases of trying different media in my life drawing practice but, until lockdown in 2020, I hadn’t picked up my coloured pencils for several years. They were always in the drawing bag that I took…

Some of my favourite life drawings rendered in pastel. It’s a different approach to my normal method of working (in soluble graphite with watercolour) and a technique I employ when I feel I’m getting a bit jaded with doing the same thing all the time. That said, I’ve probably been…

A 17-year-old’s response to “That’s Entertainment” by The Jam — When I began my A levels at the age of seventeen, I was assigned a wooden desk in the sixth-form block classroom. On that desk, a previous incumbent had scratched the motto “Today is 30 dogs day”. It always puzzled me. I never found out what it meant. I wrote…

“Never trust happiness. Never have, never will” Robert Duvall, “Places in the heart”. 1984 I can’t help it, I’ve always seen it as my job to be the family’s chief worrier. It’s a coping mechanism really, preparation in case anything goes wrong. I feel that if I’ve worried about something…