painting pink fields
14 May 2026
There's a particular stretch of road I've been driving lately that has been making my heart sing. The farmers around here have been planting their fields with sainfoin — a flowering crop used as an ...
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south african leporellos
11 May 2026
We're just back from a month in South Africa - lots of family time, visits to favourite haunts, climbing and camping, and, of course, a little bit of sketching time. I grew up in South Africa and when...
painting table mountain (free lesson)
7 May 2026
I have a treat for you today — a free painting lesson over on the DeepDeepLight YouTube channel, and I'd love you to come paint along with me. We're painting one of South Africa's most iconic views ...
why your watercolours look different from the tutorial (and what actually helps)
30 April 2026
Another long one — grab that coffee again. This is a question I hear constantly, and I want to answer it honestly. Because the truth is slightly uncomfortable: when your painting doesn't match the t...
painting the valley of the red gods
28 April 2026
There's something particular about returning to a place you loved when you were young. The Valley of the Red Gods, tucked into the Western Cape of South Africa, is one of those places for me — and f...
a bluebell forest in watercolour (without painting a single bluebell)
11 April 2026
There's something about bluebells. That hazy, glowing carpet of purple-blue that appears for just a few weeks each spring, always in the kind of light that makes you want to stand very still. It's one...
how to paint primroses without getting lost in the detail
2 April 2026
Aren't primroses just made to be painted? That deep violet with the yellow centres, and if you look closely, so many beautiful colour variations within each petal. They're the first really intense col...
how to actually progress in watercolour
30 March 2026
This is a detailed post — grab a coffee. I get asked about this a lot, and it deserves a proper answer. I'm often asked some version of the same question: how do I actually progress in watercolour? ...
moroccan spice bags : gouache ink resist
26 March 2026
I'm just back from Marrakech, and honestly, I'm still processing it. The colour alone is enough to keep a painter busy for months — saffron yellow, paprika red, the deep earthy tones of cumin and tu...