sardinian coastal tower
21 November 2024
I'm on holiday in Sardinia at the moment, enjoying swimming in the sea and sketching seascapes. All along the coast of Sardinia are these historic watch towers. They were to protect the inhabitants fr...
tutorial Clear tags
venice at sunset
7 November 2024
A very famous scene in this lesson - Venice at sunset. I was lucky enough to go on a solo sketching trip to Venice a few years ago and I did sketch the Grand Canal at sunset one evening. It was magica...
mushroom season
24 October 2024
It's that time of year when our forest walks take forever as I have to stop at every mushroom not matter how small. There's so many different ones this year because we've had a very wet autumn and, al...
an old wooden barn
26 September 2024
Here's the type of scene I really love. So simple in composition, so you're free to have a lot of fun with the washes and textures. It's possible to paint a scene like this again and again, changing t...
Autumn in Dublin Bay
12 September 2024
We're continuing with the still water theme and reflections this week and painting a very pretty autumn scene from a bay on Lake Wānaka which is near my home in New Zealand. This is one of my favouri...
using salt for texture in watercolours
10 September 2024
One way I enjoy adding marks and texture to my watercolours is by adding salt into the wet wash. I don't use anything fancy, normal table salt works well. Using salt to add blooms and sparkles in wate...
how to paint still water in watercolour
5 September 2024
A few weeks ago I asked my students what they would like for upcoming lessons. There were quite a few of you who asked for a skills lesson on painting still water. So here it is! Water is a wonderfull...
rustic buildings series
10 August 2024
On Patreon I just created a Rustic Buildings Series. This group of watercolour tutorials takes you right through from the beginning with skills lessons, then 2 intermediate lessons, an advanced one an...
painting bougainvillea framing a Greek chapel
8 August 2024
When I first saw the reference photo for this lesson, my immediate thought wasn’t architecture or accuracy — it was simply how much fun it would be to paint lots and lots (and lots) of flowers. Th...