painting illustration watercolour etc

updated: 10 april 2020

This blog shows a selection of my work over the past few years.

Recent paintings:

The beach at Hythe, Kent

acrylic on canvas board, 12x16 inches

Near Porthmadog, at low tide

acrylic on canvas using a cool palette based on pthalo blue, raw umber and red, 10x14 inches

A Venetian canal painted from a photograph taken in 2017

acrylic on canvas, 17x14 inches

The Stag

acrylic on board, 14x16 inches

The Balcary Bay Hotel, Colvend Coast, Solway Firth

acrylic on board, 12x16 inches

Corfe Castle, Dorset, from the old railway line circa 1982

acrylic on board, 6x8 inches

St Mary's Loch, Scottish Borders

acrylic on board, 11x14 inches

Still life with jug and candlestick

acrylic on board, 8x6 inches

Small Moffat landscape paintings in pastel:

Mediterranean coast

acrylic on board, 12x15 inches

Colliery railway from a photograph taken at Maesteg, South Wales, in 1972. Loaded trucks hauled away from the pit by a Hunslet 'Austerity' saddle tank locomotive

acrylic on card, 8x10 inches

Ventnor station, Isle of Wight, 1965

acrylic on board, 12x16 inches

Painting the boats at St Ives

acrylic on canvas board, 8x10 inches

A3 class No. 60081 'Shotover' leaving Carlisle for Glasgow, circa. 1960
acrylic on board, 18x22 inches

A3 class leaving York on the northbound 'Queen of Scots'

acrylic on canvas, 18x22 inches

Portloe, Cornwall

acrylic on board, 12x16 inches

Cottage near Shieldaig, Loch Torridon, Wester Ross
acrylic on board, 11x15 inches

The big rock at Portling on the Solway
acrylic on canvas, 20x20 inches

African elephant
acrylic on canvas, 20x20 inches

The train to Mallaig
acrylic on canvas, 16x20 inches

The lighthouse at Killantringan Bay

acrylic on card

Eriskay towards South Uist, Outer Hebrides

acrylic on canvas, 12x16 inches

Plockton, Scottish Highlands
acrylic on canvas, 16x20 inches

Still life
acrylic on card, 10x7 inches

Still life
acrylic on card, 8x10 inches

Still life finger painting
made with 'Infinite Painter' (Android app.) using a preset palette

Still life with copper tray
acrylic on card, 11x8 inches approx

High tide at Kirkcudbright, 20 July 2015

acrylic on board, 12x16 inches

Kamilia Beach near Fiskardo, Kefalonia

acrylic on board, 14x18 inches

Adamsholm, near Moffat
acrylic on board, 12x16 inches

A corner of the garden, made for an open gardens event
oil on canvas, 8x10 inches

Poppies with cupid (borrowed from Cezanne), also for the garden event
oil on canvas, 8x10 inches

Crofter's cottage

acrylic on board, 6x8 inches

Two imagined coastal scenes - acrylic on board

Sketch for a possible larger work
acrylic on card

Arran seen from the beach at Dunoon

acrylic on canvas

Scottish Highland scene
acrylic on board, 8x10 inches

The lock at Cropredy, Oxford Canal

acrylic on board

This little painting - it's only about 8x10 inches - is my favourite. We used to go boating on the canal and know the village well. The painting was made from a photo taken about 15 years ago but the memory was enough to get some feeling into the picture.

A complete change of subject. This is the well known Beattock bank on the main line from Carlisle to Glasgow. In the days of steam, trains struggled up the hill, often requiring an additional engine to make the grade. This is from an old photograph (not contemporary of course!) and shows a Glasgow-bound train hauled by one of the LMS 'Black 5' locomotives, number 44878.

acrylic on board, 17.5x18 inches

working sketch for a larger painting
acrylic on cardboard

Slightly cubist still life, with fruit bowl, borrowed from Matisse
gouache on paper

acrylic on board, 10x12 inches

acrylic on canvas board, 10x12 inches

Auchencastle farm, up in the hills near Moffat

acrylic on mount board, 8x10 inches

Killantringan Bay, Galloway

acrylic on canvas, 16x20 inches

Spring at Annan Water, near Moffat

acrylic on canvas, 16x20 inches

By the Sea

acrylic on board, 30x42 cm

Sandwich, Kent

small watercolour, worked from a photograph in 'Kent - The King's England', Arthur Mee, 1949

One subject, two different treatments:

The Brecon Canal

acrylic on board, 10x12 inches

oil on canvas board, 12x16 inches

Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal c.1978

drawing with brush and indian ink, overpainted in watercolour, on cartridge paper, 8x8 inches

Highland Harbour (2)

acrylic on board, 10x14 inches

Moffat from Annan Water

acrylic on board, 9x11 inches

Port William, Galloway

acrylic on board, 10x12 inches

Cornish Harbour

acrylic on board, 6x8 inches

Highland Harbour (1)

acrylic on board, 10x14 inches

Polperro Harbour at low tide

acrylic on canvas, 30x30 cm

Eilean Donan Castle is a firm favourite for artists. The subject is perfect for a landscape painter from whichever angle it is viewed. It offers mountains, architecture, water and reflections in a balanced composition. There is something romantic about an island castle although the present building was largely constructed in the early 20th century, the original castle having been a ruin for many years.

oil on canvas, 22x18 inches

The Annan Water valley looking north

acrylic on canvas, 12x16 inches

Corehead, to the north of Moffat

acrylic on board. 18x14 inches

Ericstane

acrylic on board, 16x20 inches

The Moffat hills

acrylic on board, 12x12 inches

This semi-abstract landscape was inspired by the hills around Moffat Well. (Moffat was once a spa town and visitors travelled up to the well to sample the waters.)

acrylic on board, 29x24 inches

This is the Annan Water Valley, near Howslack looking towards White Hill, on a sunny afternoon.

acrylic on canvas, 16x12 inches

Again in the Annan Valley, this time closer to Moffat, is a painting of the early summer flowers and blossom.

acrylic on board, 22x16 inches

Low tide at St Michael's Mount, Cornwall.

acrylic on canvas, 12x16 inches

A less conventional view of the same subject. This is a knife painting made with oil paint (on canvas). The paint is applied quickly and decisively without excessive regard for detail, the object being to create a strong pattern of colour and form.

A dog portrait set at Port William near the Mull of Galloway.

acrylic on canvas, 12x16 inches

Marine subjects always interest me. Boats are as close as inanimate objects get to life-painting; they need to curve in the right places to look convincing. Both the pictures below are painted in acrylic on primed board, the third painting being a watercolour on cartridge paper.

Polperro, Cornwall - from a photograph taken at low tide.

Fishing boats at Walberswick, Suffolk. This is a favourite spot for painters as compositions almost form themselves.

This watercolour is based on an old view of Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway.

Cockburnspath, Berwickshire

small watercolour study on Sennelier 140lb (rough) paper

Still life

acrylic on board, 8x10.5 inches

The next two pictures are from scenes in the Isle of Lewis. The "blackhouses" and coastal cottages are a strong feature of the landscape.

Both pictures are 16x12 inches and painted in acrylic.

This seashore scene from Orkney employs Samuel Peploe's style.

'The Watchie' at Catterline, near Stonehaven, was the last home and studio of Joan Eardley when she was painting the tempestuous North Sea. The building is perched right on the cliff edge overlooking the small harbour and her studio juts out towards the ocean.

watercolour on 140lb Bockingford paper