I managed to finish the portrait I started yesterday. She looks a bit startled ! I think I may start another one, maybe of someone I know this time.

I started another watercolour portrait this afternoon but I won’t have time to finish it before a I go out this evening so here are a couple of figures I was practicing with last week.

A bit of an experiment today, I tried to keep it free but as ever was distracted by detail! Must try harder!

Another picture from the Van Gogh exhibition at Tate Britain. This is “Starry night over the Rhône” I decided the light should come from the painting as it is such an iconic work.

When we were in London on Tuesday we saw this wine merchants in St James Street,. It looks like a Harry Potter film set and I am sure it hides the entrance to Diagonal Alley. Apparently they have traded from the same premises since 1698

I have known Cliff since we went to school together in 1963 at the age of 11, he hasn’t changed a bit! This started as a preliminary sketch to a painting but I was pleased with the initial drawing so I did a bit more rendering.

We are going to the Cropredy Festival in a couple of weeks so I thought I would get into the spirit by doing a painting of last years sunset. Looking forward to sitting in the sun (hopefully!) listening to music and painting with some good friends.

Anyone else sketching or painting at Cropredy this year?

I. Went to the Van Gogh exhibition at Tate Britain yesterday. Out of all the paintings on display this was probably. The most popular and so difficult to photograph. I didn’t want to photograph just the painting, there are plenty of good reproductions around, I wanted the people looking at the painting. I have reduced the crowd for a better composition.

Went to London to visit the Van Gogh exhibition at Tate Britain today, it was a bit crowded but worth seeing, the streets were hot and busy so we went into Green Park for lunch, there was lots of people taking advantage of the shade under the trees.