Christmas Card, Finished

Miss T avec de nouveaux verres et chaussettes de raie.

Miss T's portrait has been on hold while I waited an opportunity to photo her with her new glasses. I had not been happy with the way her face was going in the painting so I had painted it out. The long wait with the faceless Miss T eventually creeped me out so I was forced to chalk a face in to allow me to eat my breakfast in peace.

So at long last ... ta da! ... the new glasses.

Christmas Card, Work in progress, 3

Close up of the Christmas Fairy. I have each colour on a separate layer ... sometimes multiple versions of each layer set to a different effect and opacity. The advantage of using Photoshop is that I can explore and experiment. I have not blocked the colour in over the whole image yet as I keep getting caught up in the detail on screen forgetting the bigger picture. A bad practice!

Christmas Card, Work in progress, 2

Christmas Card, Work in progress

I am working in Photoshop.
The Christmas decorations hanging on the tree are a Nut Cracker in the form of a Eynsham Morris Dancer with their green watering. The can holds their beer when they are dancing and it is the job of the youngest member to see that it is kept full. The dancers have their own pewter mugs. The fairy is my grand-daughter.

Christmas card rough

Morris dancer nutcracker tree decoration
Pencil sketch

"Genius loci"

“What do you paint?”

This a question I am frequently asked. This week, at a friend’s 25th wedding university party, I realized that I need to provide a focused answer that had meaning for people who did not know my work. So …

My work show the “spirit of place’ that is Eynsham. I paint not only the physical aspects (landscape, houses, river etc.) of the village but also its culture in the form of its Morris dancers, carnival, pub etc) and most importantly I paint its' people who are my friends and family.

"There were elephants in the room."

Evening sun

Returning to a work once completed is usually a mistake but this one really needed a little more attention.



'Evening sun on Newlands'
Watercolour paint
16.4 x 11.2 cms

Still no pencil.

Swinford Toll Bridge, Eynsham
watercolour paint
15 x 10 cms