'Step Outside'

The August issue of Leisure Painter is now in the shops, which includes part two of my article: 'Step Outside'.

Painting on Exmoor

Just returned from a few days on Exmoor, tutoring at Shorland Old Farm. The weather was, well, very British summer time, but we did get to paint outside a couple of times. Everyone had a go at painting the farmhouse and I managed to paint this demonstration during the morning.

New Article in Leisure Painter

The summer issue of Leisure Painter is on sale, containing part one of my article on painting outdoors. Part two will be in the next issue.

'Highcliffe Castle'

Just returned from my 'Dorset Sketchbook' course at Art Holidays in Dorset, in Boscombe. Had some decent weather this time round. This is Highcliffe Castle, which I painted in my pocket sketchbook. This was once home to 'Mr Selfridge'.

Sketchbook page...

Here's a sketch from last week's trip to Dorset. Normally, I wouldn't get the time to paint something like this on the spot. Once my class arrive at a painting location, they invariably want to paint different views, which means that I spend most of my time doing a circuit of the students, to help them with any problems. 
However, on this day the weather wasn't great, which meant that the whole class was forced to take shelter in the same spot (underneath the awning of the lifeboat station). Time then, for me to get my paints out and do this little sketch of the cottages at Mudeford Quay.

'Marine Scenes in Watercolour'

Got back from Boscombe yesterday, from my 'Marine Scenes in Watercolour' course at Art Holidays in Dorset. Here are a couple of the demo' paintings I did. The monotone one was an example of how to build up the painting in three washes, from light to dark.

My New Book...

I've just about finished work on the new book I'm doing for Quarto. It will be published in November, with the title 'The Watercolour Artist's Handbook', in the UK. In the USA it will be called 'Painting in Watercolor'. Yesterday I received the colour proofs, all 250 pages of them. Here are a just couple of the proofs from the book.