Escaping Through Painting

... In the world of portraiture it seems that smiles are often frowned upon, but this may just be because teeth are seen as challenging to paint by a lot of artists. However, if your subject is a naturally jovial person then you must portray them truthfully in order to capture their personality ...

... During the first lockdown Sky Arts started streaming live portrait sessions, via Facebook, every Sunday morning.  Each week, a person in the public eye would sit for the world to paint their portrait. The recording was then available to view for the rest of the week so that you could finish your portraits without time constraint. Portrait Artist of the Week became a release from the reality of the pandemic for thousands of people around the globe and was repeated in the second lockdown. The episodes are now available to watch and join in with again on the Sky.com website. I joined in with a few 'live' and intend to have a go at more ...

... another Portrait Artist of the Week session ...

... this was the first animal portrait I painted. We lost Leafie last September, having had her for nearly four years. She was already an old dog by the time the Dog's Trust had rescued her from an open yard where she had been abandoned, along with several others, some of whom where her offspring. She was emaciated and near to death at that time and her recovery was slow. It became evident that at some point in her early life she had been a treasured pet and had probably been stolen to breed from. Despite the cruelty she had suffered at the hands of humans, she was the friendliest and gentlest of dogs and is sorely missed. Although she was a dog that had been rescued she actually rescued us during some challenging times ...

... I was given some iridescent paints as a present and wasn't sure what I would use them for until we were sent a beautiful photo of a starling by Ken Rutherford. Soon after the painting was finished, a Starling fell down our chimney and had to be rescued from the stove. The painting now hangs in that room ...

... On a holiday in France a few years ago, we were eating lunch in a beautiful restaurant called Le Sens de la Terre, in Piégut-Pluviers, when I spied their dog 'Filou' intently watching a local finish his lunch. The colours of the scene were so striking that I took a photo. Having painted this last year, I was hoping that one day I would be able to give it to the owners in person, but the pandemic intervened. I'm not one for putting things off any more, so I sent it in the post instead. It now features inside the cover of one of their recipe books ... ! 

... I've started to experiment with styles of landscape painting. I seem naturally to prefer a loose, almost abstract style. It's something I want to do more of and actually try painting 'plein air' this year ... 

... this was a slightly different style of landscape, with the intention of capturing the movement of water ...