A few recent paintings.....

I often feel I should be out 'Plain Air' Painting but, in reality, the reference for the work does not necessarily make a lot of difference. Sometimes I paint 'plain air', sometimes from photographs; sometimes from the imagination.

Painting seems to be even more providential than fishing. At least with fishing, the chances of success  can be increased by study of the fishing ground; care in selection of bait and gear and studious research in to the best methods and practices. Painting, however, seems (to me at least) a little more elusive and, in the long run, very little can be done to achieve success. Research and formulae seem to do little to guarantee a good painting and one's only option is to keep going in the belief that, somewhere along the line, there will be worthwhile results.

These two 'skyscapes' were painted on canvases that held landscapes that needed improvement. Sometimes it amazes me how long it takes to do something that looks a bit 'slapdash'..The end results


 bear little resemblance to the work underneath.

A painting of Manhattan in New York. I had my first visit to the US in Spring '15where I took a number of photographs and did a little sketching...

A 'Still Life' (painted yesterday) ... I'm very often disappointed with my Still Lifes but, for some reason, the Green Bowl in this painting seems to work quite well..

A few paintings from a recent trip to New South Wales in Eastern Australia... I wasn't able to get my French Easel in my case so I ended up taking photographs and painting from the computer screen back at the Farm...

I quite like the idea of these larger sized portraits so I've been trying a couple... not sure that the image is as big as I would like but I keep redoing the drawing and can't seem to increase the size much..

A few recent paintings..

This one was painted a week or son ago. I was at home thinking what can I paint and happened to notice the Houses of Parliament logo/image on Morning TV so took the train up to town (from the South Coast) and found a spot on one of the Golden Jubilee Bridges..

I think it might have caused more of a stir if it was painted a hundred and fifty years ago and called 'impression'...

A portrait of Andrew

Goring Beach...was just going to paint the Landscape when the people came and set up their deck-chairs..I think they help a bit.

A Still Life...

Lights on the A259 ...

Haven't posted on here for a while so here is another go.

I sell most of my paintings 'online' at the moment. Some on dedicated Artist's Websites like Saatchionline, Artfinder and Artillery.co uk and also on Ebay.

Prices range between about £700.00 and 99pence and I can't really say that iv'e discovered the secret of marketing my work in the most productive manner.

One thing of interest however and, something of a revelation to me, is the power of the 'mailing list'.

I have been selling on the Art Sites mentioned above for a couple of years now. Saatchi and ArtGallery have sold a handful of  paintings but Artfinder (over the same time) has sold over 90. The same paintings are on each Site.

Artfinder gives its Artists a "management' page where you can view the number of daily visitors to your 'gallery'. Mine was averaging about thirty or forty a day. Sometimes less, sometimes a hundred.
One day I had an email (presumably sent to all their 8000 artists) asking if I would like to be promoted (no charge, just had to meet some criteria). The result was simply (as far as I could see) one email, on one day with a link to my work sent to the people on the Artfinder Mailing List (perhaps there was some other promotion but I couldn't find it). The result. Page visits went from thirty or forty a day to, at its peak, seven and a half thousand a day. Yes, seven and a half thousand which resulted in the sale of some twenty paintings.

So I am a convert to the benefits of the 'Mailing List' and, I think this gives something of a example of the power in such devices.

Some recent paintings:

Paintings carried out in the last week or so..

Street in Arles (although painted this when I got home) (sold)..

 Another Street in Arles

 A Plein Air painting of Chanctonbury Ring (Hill in West Sussex) (sold)..

Plein Air painting of Farmland in West Sussex (windy and cold)..

Littlehampton Beach last Saturday Afternoon..

Painted this on the same day as the Farmland above..

North Street Brighton (sold)

Shopping Street in Arles..

Some of Last Week's Paintings

Paintings from the last week..

Some paintings from the past week: