When I was a child we used to have family jigsaw puzzles, one of them was Primavera by Botticelli and it has since been one of my favourite classical paintings. This is my pen and wash version of the three graces from Primavera.

When I was a child we used to have family jigsaw puzzles, one of them was Primavera by Botticelli and it has since been one of my favourite classical paintings. This is my pen and wash version of the three graces from Primavera.
In my Christmas stocking was a nice blue Dryden fountain pen. Here are a few sketches to try it out. The ink is water soluble so I have to be careful adding watercolour. I will look into using a non soluble ink but I don’t want to clog it up.
A little portrait practice in charcoal today.inspired by a visit to the Russel Cotes museum in Bournemouth. They have an exhibition called “Art in lockdown” consisting of paintings from the archives that are relevant to the situation we find ourselves in at present. There are some wonderful portraits in the exhibition and on. Permanent display in the museum, most of them better than mine!
I was delighted to see that my painting of Fletcher has been awarded third place in the Purely Watercolour Facebook Christmas challenge. This is the first time I have got anywhere in an art competition although I haven’t entered any apart from these monthly challenges, perhaps I should enter some more.
Back in 2002 I used to go off roading with Richard and his daughter Amy and my son Duncan. Richard brought Storm along for the ride in his swb Defender. I had a lwb truck cab series 3 which was slow and noisy on the road but great in the mud. Duncan and Amy are both in the police now and none of us have land rovers any more.
One of my favourite comic book artists is Jean Paul Gibran the french illustrator. This is a copy of one of his illustrations, his chic french girls are beautifully drawn but appear deceptively simple.
I have been working on a couple of things for Christmas today so here is a sketch from a couple of weeks ago. Corfe Castle with sheep.
Today’s Sky arts portrait of the year featured the journalist Samira Ahmed. I used an acrylic ground with oils over the top, a technique I haven’t tried before. It took me two and a half hours which is probably the longest time I have ever spent on one portrait.
Today’s people are in a yoga class. I tried yoga once at home, my wife sat on the sofa in fits of laughter while my two labradors tried to join in by licking me and getting underneath me every time ai bent down, I am afraid ai gave up after that. Perhaps I would do better joining a class with these three but I am afraid I may lose concentration!
I spent today in Bridport visiting a sick friend so I haven’t had time to paint. This is a watercolour I did while we were away in the motorhome a couple of weeks ago. A bit of an autumn theme.