Learning to See

Sometimes I think it’s a good idea to get a bunch of recent work together and just look at it. To see what you notice. So that’s what I’ve been doing. Most of the recent pieces I’ve done...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/the-big-picture

I’m working on a series of small paintings of flowers from life at the moment. Trying to break some habits. And hopefully get closer to what makes a painting me. Or mine. Or something. To move ...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/why-this-painting-failed-and-how-i-fixed-it

Setting up a still life properly can make the difference between your painting working out or being a disaster. You know the feeling when you’re half way through a painting and it isn’t worki...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/how-to-set-up-and-light-a-still-life

This is a recording of a quick live stream I did showing the tube paints I use to mix greens for leaves in oils. Some of the choices may surprise you! But I think that if you try them, you’ll f...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/how-to-mix-greens-in-oil-paint

Every morning, before anyone else in the house is awake, I sit in the kitchen and write in my journal. It's a quiet space I set aside for thinking, planning my day, encouraging myself, occasional...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/yellow-roses-and-a-secret-only-my-journal-knew-until-today

I'm often struck by how limited oil paint is. For a start, it simply can't replicate the rage of values from light to dark that we see in nature. Because we paint on flat surfaces, we can't accur...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/lambent-rose-the-limitations-of-paint-and-the-endless-search

I was in a real quandry. I had a beautiful spray of roses that I'd just snipped from the bush in the garden (Paddy's roses again) but beautiful as they were, they were already beginning to fade. ...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/roses-in-july-and-embracing-the-unexpected

When I first started painting - or at least, when I decided that I was going to try to learn properly - I spent the least time I could on the palette. I wanted to be on the painting as much as po...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/last-day-of-june-boscobel-and-spending-more-time-on-the-palette

The more I paint, the more I realise the importance of chroma. I know that, for many people, chroma isn't really something they consider much as they paint. Until I dscovered Munsell, I didn't th...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/narcissi-and-willow-pattern

Daffodils in a Coffee Pot. oil on linen panel, 12 x 8 inches. Currently at Auction, click here to view This painting was the last one I managed to fit in before daffodil season finished here in t...

https://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/daffodils-in-a-coffee-pot