Japanese Garden

June 7, 2014

It was a damp and overcast late winter day when I sketched this azalea in the Japanese Garden in St. Mawgan in Cornwall. Its flowers held a promise of spring that was a long time coming that year. The painting was made safely back in the warmth of the studio.

Inna Gadda da Vida

June 7, 2014

Finally, after trawling the archives, I get to put up a new painting. Just completed, it’s a painting of the Swiss-Italian gardens at Lavandula Lavender Farm near Daylesford. Go there and have the share plate. This is from a sketch of their fabulously ornamental vegetable plots: onions and nasturtiums and, hmmm, nigella maybe? Not entirely sure. For … More Inna Gadda da Vida

And pallid evening twines its beaming hair

May 29, 2014

Looking north from Mt Buninyong. I like a volcano, even an extinct one, so I’m pretty happy with the number dotted around Ballarat. The one in the foreground is Mt. Warrenheip. And the title? Well, I have been painting for around 30 years, and I have been calling each painting something prosaic like Ballarat Lane XXVIII, which … More And pallid evening twines its beaming hair

Otways

May 27, 2014

Before I arrived in Australia I assumed I would go straight to the desert and paint the sort of iconic (to Brits at least) Australian landscape that I had seen in galleries and art books. I assumed I would need a lot of red paint. I settled in Melbourne, then in Ballarat and so far, ten years later, … More Otways