It was the annually Christmas paint a long on Saturday which for a chance was held up at the Cook & Barker, my local, which everyone will have heard me mention at some point, and what a fabulous night it was.

We all painted a village church scene in snow with an interval in the middle during the Cook & Barker provided lovely home made soup with fresh bread, we had tea, coffee, mulled wine and the best mince pies I've ever tasted.  All in all a lovely night and a cracking way to start the Christmas period.

The Finished Painting

I had an excellent show at the NEC from 3rd - 6th November. Massive crowds and a full audience for every show that I did.

It was a really good laugh with plenty of banter from both sides.  I did 4 shows a dad for 4 days in Winsor & Newton watercolours and Winsor and Newton Artisan Oils.

Did a fab course in Bamburgh a couple of weeks ago, it was a really lovely group who gelled well together. So needless to say there were good nights in the bar after painting. We were lucky with the weather, a couple of dodgy looking days which turned into beautifully sunny days. All in all 4 fabulous days of painting with a lot of lovely people.

 

In July we returned from our Europe trip, we had fantastic weather, a good journey and produced some great paintings. 
The photos from our trip are available on the below link.

View the images here

A couple of mini projects without the words, just so you can see how I got there.

Did a fab course in Bamburgh a couple of weeks ago, it was a really lovely group who gelled well together. So needless to say there were good nights in the bar after painting. We were lucky with the weather, a couple of dodgy looking days which turned into beautifully sunny days. All in all 4 fabulous days of painting with a lot of lovely people.

 

In July we returned from our Europe trip, we had fantastic weather, a good journey and produced some great paintings. 
The photos from our trip are available on the below link.

View the images here

As I have said previously I have really been enjoying playing with these oil bars. but I just thought I would let you see how they start off  because its not a very pretty site to begin with.



Whilst I was doing all the schools down in Kent, I did have a free day so I went out wit my mate Robert Burdges who is a keen amateur painter and this is what I did at Ramsgate Harbour



As most of you are aware we have just come back from a fabulous tour around Europe and here are some of the pictures. I have shown you a couplr of them stage by stage as I remembered to take them on my mobile phone. Keep an eye out for the superb photographs taken by Dorothy McKenzie of the whole tour coming soon.

   

And below are some of the images for sale sin the bits and pieces gallery.

          

I have just got back from Rutland, it was a fabulous group, the scenery was stunning and painting was great.

Its been a particularly hectic time lately, I started off in Lavenham of course the swan hotel and as ever the holiday provided beautiful weather for the entire week, stunning painting locations and a lovely group in a fabulous hotel.
 






From Lavenham I went straight to Faversham and again a lovely group with different numbers on each different day. As many of he people didn't stay in the hotel but lived locally and travelled daily. I found some fabulous spots to paint in because as I didn't know the area that well, I literally did reccies each night and went and knocked on peoples doors.


 
I have also done my first trip to France for the year. I will be going there a couple more times this year. But again we didn't have a single day where we couldn't paint out doors. And of course it wouldn't be the same without a day in Paris, sitting around in cafes doing some drawing and sketching.



I then had a few days in Scotland at Fort Augustus to be precise and I went with my mates Badger and Sue from down in Essex who have got a place up there. But had 3 fabulous days of painting and of course who can fault the views from the banks of Loch Ness, which is where their place is situated.

The schools project has now been completed and I have to say what a tremendous success they were . I started it with a little bit of trepidation having never really through of myself as a schools type teacher but how rewarding it was. The kids just soaked up the information, they were enthusiastic and it has to be said they painted really really well.

Patching was a tremendous success everyone was very enthused by the new oil bars.  I have to admit even I was surprised at the ease at which I could demonstrate them.

Charlie has recently starting doing a series of Venetian scenes as projects for Alfredo who actually lives in Venice. A great honour when you consider how many people he must see everyday painting Venice.

View the full size images on the premier gallery.

 

I have just got back from Ireland, had another great course...

Read the round up here

View The Photos

I am over there again in September anyone who wants to come with me is very welcome.

Check out some of the photographs. View Photos

Just managed to spend 3 days in one place and had a lovely time. Starting off with Ely on the Friday night for a 2 hour show, it was a huge audience but what a lovely bunch of people they were. A good fun night and amazingly they laughed at ALL my jokes.

This was followed by 2 days of workshops on the Saturday and Sunday in Cambridge itself. I only have the one photograph, there were 10 people in the group, unfortunately it rained on the Saturday so we did an indoor workshop in one of the fabulous buildings of Darwin College which is where we were based. On the Sunday the sun came out and we had a lovely day on the banks of the Cam. A leisurely long pub lunch and all in all a fabulous day.

Thanks to Liz Howe for all of her hard work and superb organisation, and a big thanks to her and Phil for putting me up and making me feel so welcome.