New Year Challenge

Holidays and Birthday over, time to get back to work.

Amazing to think that 35 years ago today (5th January 1988) was my first day as a civilian after leaving the RAF Regiment. I had plans that from that day I would be a full time professional artist. The intervening years have not been easy and have certainly thrown up plenty of challenges. However in the main I have stuck with it.

I have never been short of ideas for my work. Obviously the one that shines out above all the others was The Wainwrights in Colour which by fluke brought me a little bit of notoriety.

Last year (2022) was a very busy and rewarding year for us. The New Year Challenge is to knuckle down and produce a lot more artwork for the coming season. Our calendar for shows and events is already filling up. I have a window of about 6 months to produce new and exciting work.

I plan to post regular updates on this website of sketches and paintings from the studio. This will also include some new oil paintings, a medium which I haven’t worked with for quite a while. The intention is to produce enough artwork so that visitors to our trade stand at events realise that I am an artist first and photographer second.

Part of the New Year Challenge is to trawl through my archive of photographs and fill some new sketchbooks with thumbnails and ideas for new paintings. These sketchbooks have been prepped over the Christmas holidays and I am excited to begin putting the ideas down on paper.

Small thumbnail watercolour sketches only take a matter of minutes to complete. They are almost essential in the planning of final works.

Not only will updates of progress be posted here and on the Artwork section of the website but I will continue to add content to the Sketchbooks section. I have just updated this area which includes a feature of animated sketchbooks. So why not pop over to have a look at what you can expect in the coming months.

Exciting but busy times are ahead. Keep an eye on the website for new content.

Thanks for reading.