News and commentary

2024

Imagine. It was a privilege to have 'Gender Perceptions in the Boardroom' chosen to be shown alongside work by Lucian Freud, Howard Hodgkin, Patrick George and many other talented Bryanston alumni at Gallery 8, Duke Street in London's St. James's in January. Selectors included Xavier Bray (Director of the Wallace Collection) and Anthony Connolly (President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters).

2023

Summary. 2023 was an eventful year with my work appearing in seven shows and three portraits delivered.

Heatherley's. My etching 'Seated Nude' was shown at the Heatherley School of Fine Art's exhibition of work produced in the school's open access sessions for portrait, life and print. I use the school's printmaking facilities and attend its life-drawing sessions.

Green Door Gallery, Brussels. Green Door Gallery selected 'Working from Home' for their December exhibition.

North and South. Multiple paintings and prints were shown at two out-of-London exhibitions - the D31 Gallery in Doncaster and Gallery at 42, Eastbourne ( Details). Pieces shown included 'Gender Perceptions in the Boardroom', 'She's not there (Glass ceiling)' and 'The Way we live now'.

'Waiting for Uber' (watercolour) was short-listed for the D31 Art Prize, the annual competition run by the D31 Art Gallery, Doncaster.
Details of the exhibition are here.

Printmaking exhibition. Two pieces, a drypoint etching 'Trombonist' and a lithograph 'What might have been' were hung in May at the Heatherley's Printmaking Exhibition, Chelsea.
See also the Shows page.

Royal Watercolour Society. My gouache painting 'Work-station' was hung at the Royal Watercolour Society's 'RWS Open 2023' exhibition at Bankside Gallery, London.
Read details on the Shows page.

2022

Competition selection. My gouache painting, 'East Coast, Tasmania', was selected in the Artists & Illustrators magazine's 'Seascapes' competition. It was one of only six pieces chosen in addition to the outright winner. You can see the painting in the magazine's competition gallery and also in this website's image gallery in the Landscapes section. (September 2022)

North Wales. I took advantage of a brief visit to Llangollen in North Wales in April to make some sketches with future work in mind. Two of them can be viewed in the image gallery in the Plein-air Sketches/Wales section. (April 2022)

'Threads' this well-attended group show took place at '54 The Gallery' in Shepherd Market, Mayfair. My work shown included items using oils, watercolour and lithography. (Mar 2022)

'Printmaking Techniques' A talk by Chris Hensher to the Selsdon Art Group, supported by prints, plates, tools and materials, addressed a wide range of techniques in current use for relief, intaglio and planographic printing. (Feb 2022)

The Heatherley's Open Studio Show An exhibition of work by artists using Heatherley's Open Studios for portrait, life and printmaking. These facilities provide access to models maintaining a pose across several drawing or painting sessions and to a wide range of printmaking equipment. (Jan 2022)
Artwork shown: 'We need to talk' (lithograph)

2021

The Human Condition show in Mayfair scheduled for March 2021 was first postponed and subsequently cancelled because of the lockdown. You can view the poster for this exhibition on the Shows page. (Updated Jan 2022)

The Heatherley's Summer Print Exhibition. Two aquatint etchings - Swan at Cheverny and Double Self-Portrait were hung at this show in July 2021 which formed part of the Kensington & Chelsea Arts Week. (July 2021)

2020

Etchings. Despite restrictions the Heatherley's print workshop was able to continue operating throughout the Autumn enabling me to produce two new aquatint etchings, Thought Process and Swan at Cheverny. (December 2020)

East Sussex. Opportunities for en-plein-air work having been severely limited by Covid-19 restrictions, an opportunity to spend a week painting and drawing in East Sussex was enthusiastically seized. Some items from the Rother Valley and the shore at Dungeness and Hastings can be viewed in the image gallery in the Landscape and Plein-air Sketches sections. (October 2020)

Artists & Illustrators. In the Artists & Illustrators magazine's challenge competition my watercolour 'The Silk Painter' was selected and displayed in their on-line gallery. (August 2020)

Bleak Times. Completed in August 2020, this painting - oils on canvas panel - reflects the emotional impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

The Resilient Self. This was the new title for the SELF exhibition, postponed from April as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. In order to accommodate social distancing requirements, the show was moved from Holborn to the Espacio Gallery, London and ran from July 31st to August 7th, 2020. (July 2020)

On-line gallery. The Heatherley School of Fine Art's lockdown gallery displayed 'May' and 'Lamplight'. (July 2020)

Lamplight was my second lock-down portrait. In addition to depicting the young woman, my intention was to explore the behaviour and effect of artificial light in an interior setting. Oils on canvas panel, 25 x 20 cm. (May 2020)

The SELF Exhibition, London, for which my aquatint etching Double Self Portrait has been selected, has been postponed as a result of the Coronavirus lockdown. The new dates will be announced as and when available. (April 2020)

May, a portrait of my granddaughter, was my first major lock-down project. I used an abstract background device in order to better locate the figure within the composition. Watercolour on Hahnemuehle board, 36 x 48 cm. The initial charcoal sketch for this painting is also illustrated.(April 2020)

I showed a wide selection of work on Stand 100 at the Contemporary Art Fair - Surrey in March, immediately prior to the lock-down. (Mar 2020)

This portrait, Dorothy by the Balcony Window, was started in 2019 and completed in February. Dorothy Stapleton is known internationally as an expert in art quilting and I have shown one of her pieces on the wall behind her. Oils on canvas, 30 x 40 cm. (Feb 2020)

Double Self-Portrait (aquatint etching - see below, May 2019) was selected for the SELF Exhibition,London, scheduled for April/May 2020. (Jan 2020)

2019

My watercolour 'Waiting for Uber' was selected for the University of Cambridge's national exhibition, the Cambridge Summer Open 2019.
Cambridge icon
Details of the exhibition are here.

To avoid the problems often associated with the behaviour of normal papers when wet while working on larger pieces, I instead used for the first time a Hahnemuehle 450 gsm watercolour board and found it to be worth the extra expense. (June 2019)

I have just completed a double self-portrait, the planned aquatint etching (zinc) based upon the acrylic study shown below.The two images, positive and negative, while very close in appearance, are not identical in form, as each was hand-worked separately. I have limited this edition to ten copies. (May 2019)

For 'Dawn Watch', instead of canvas or a canvas panel, perhaps prompted by familiarity with metal surfaces in printmaking practice I used a grained aluminium panel. This provides total rigidity yet offers a canvas-like texture and tooth. The surface is also virtually indestructible.

While my primary interest lay in the portrait of the police officer, I also found fascinating the effect on the grass of the cold dawn light combined with the artificial glare of the aircraft's landing lights. 'Dawn Watch' is a narrative composition which has allowed me to combine portrait and landscape which I often prefer to having to choose one or the other. (March 2019)

This month I undertook a self-portrait study in Self-portrait (acrylic) acrylic on paper. This will be the basis for an aquatint etching project to be undertaken later in the quarter and is not intended as a finished work. It is the first time that I have addressed this challenge which seems to be something most artists address sooner or later. (January 2019)

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2018

Four oil portraits painted from life in Studio 6 at Heatherley's. Work on more general subjects (paintings, drawings and prints) continued throughout the year. (2018)

Three etchings and a gouache painting, all based Ellipses upon sketches made earlier in the year in Northumberland. (October to December 2018)

En plein air sketching (landscape and local life) in Southern Spain. (June 2018)

En plein air landscape sketching Estuary, Alnmouth around Alnmouth in Northumberland. (May 2018)

First lithographs produced on the offset press. (April/May 2018)

Sketching while touring the wineries in the Yarra Valley and pen-and-wash work in Melbourne (people and the city). (January 2018)

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2017

Drawings of city life in Hobart, Tasmania along with some marine sketches at nearby Battery Point and Sandy Bay. (December 2017)

'OK Yah!' (painting - watercolour and gouache) was shown at the Chelsea Life 2017 exhibition. (November 2017)

'Holding' (drypoint print) made it onto Holding the pre-selected short-list for the Royal West of England Academy's 165th Annual Open Exhibition. (September 2017)

Worked en plein air for a week with oils landscape specialist Murray Ince. Some of the work produced can be seen via the 'Galleries' tab. See 'Sketches/Wales'. (July 2017)

'The Third Man' and 'All by myself again', both drypoint prints, were shown at the Heatherley's Printmaking Exhibition. (April/May 2017)

My painting, 'Bar - Midday', was selected for the Royal Watercolour Society's exhibition 'Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2017'. The exhibition ran from March 3rd to March 15th 2017 at Bankside Gallery on the Thames riverfront next to Tate Modern. (March 2017)