I think this may be a first for me, Yorick 2 was sold via Twitter to a collector in Chicago today. The proceeds go direct to a course I'm interested in taking.

If you would like to collect my work or otherwise like to support my artistic endeavours, I am now offering a patrons programme. I've added a new and growing list of supporters to my blog in the side-bar that will include you. Each of my supporters will receive a text link in the side-bar, in the patrons list, and an original sketch or limited print. I will also make a short post the artwork I

A detail from the previously posted sketch, based on Jim High in Tom Stoppard's play 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' as it was performed in Prague. The image you see on screen is almost exactly to scale. You can see how I used the pastel over pencils in this detail, I just thought that might be of interest to some who work with pastel. Click on the image to see it in greater detail.

Scanned this today, just didn't get a chance to upload. To further the Hamlet theme of late here is a sketch in pastel based on acting rehearsals for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. More info on this will follow soon...but right now I'm hitting the hay. G'night!

This study for a momento mori is, after all, just some red wine spilled over paper and for that recalls this quotation from the Rubaiyat of Omar KayyamWhether at Naishápúr or Babylon,Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.The study was inspired by a stage scene in 'Swan Song' by Anton Chekhov and performed by

After my last post of skulls I received a tweet from 'thedougco' in the US on the subject of Yorick from Hamlet. Although the bone church studies are unrelated I am, in fact, slowly building up a series of theatre sketches amp; earlier this year rendered several scenes from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a play that takes a parallax view of the events in Shakespeare's Hamlet. So it's a fare

I've been away for a few weeks by the sea. I always take a travel easel with me to Croatia, the crisp, clean, light is wonderful. This year I took watercolours for the first time. I'll post this work here shortly.

This A4 size study, made in red wine, is that of a cloven skull on display in the ossuary at Sedlec, about 1hr 30mins drive from Prague. It is very likely this poor soul suffered a terrible death. Many of the people whose remains are kept in this ossuary died of plague, but not all. Several skulls in the chapel show signs of terrible wounds inflicted during the Hussite or 'Bohemian wars'. This

A few weeks back I once again visited what we call 'The Bone Church'. Two sketches of a cleaved skull, painted in wine, will be uploaded here at some point in the next 24hrs with a short explanation.

If you are interested in 'Art' - watch this...

We went to the bone church today. I know, with all my talk of new flowers, summer light and rapeseed paintings, visiting a chapel decorated with human bones was obviously my next move. It was a school trip and I was unaware it was on the agenda. I first visited the Ossuary in Kutna Hora in 1993. The chapel was decorated with the bones of the dead in ( I think ) 1870. It's a very peculiar thing to

I went into the fields today to paint. There are rapeseed fields in bloom now around here and it is very striking to look at. At this point the fields are only just turning yellow so there is still a lot of green in there, the yellow looks almost glazed over. I wandered around trying to get a good view. Oddly (and you picture-makers may have noticed this too) the closer I got to a scene I had

Ok, so things have been a bit up in the air this last 4 weeks. I've been busy on 4 short films, two of which I became involved with at the last minute because other actors had pulled out unexpectedly - one because of the volcano. Now I hope to get back to painting in a big way, and mostly painting in wine. We have a major trip planned for later this year and I better get my skates on if I'm going