This is a pochade paintingof a piece ofwaste ground opposite Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. I was using gouache paints for this, as I want to get to grips with them as I want to take them on a short holiday soon. The colours are a bit garish, I will have to work on this to get a bit of subtlety in. I may have a go at this view with my oils,but the light was so good that day that I fear I would not get a day as good a day again. Steve Strode and his wonderful views of Liverpool has nothing to fear yet!

This is stage 2 of the Way to the Sea painting. Work done all over, painting between the tree shapes to make the sky and generally painting more intuitivley than of late. Then lots of marks down on the forest floor simply for the joy of doing them really....Trying to get that dazzle you get when you look directly into the sun..

The second painting is another woodscape. This has the working title "The way to the sea" and is of a wooded area just off the Wirral Way leading down to the Dee estuary. It is being done in the studio from drawings and a black and white photo to give me more idea of tones, without getting too hung up on colour. The thing that impressed me when I first saw this view was the low winter sun glowing through the trees giving a contre jour effect. I tried for most of the session to achieve this by using darks against lights and then in the final 5 minutes rubbing a rag over it in exasperation. Suddenly there it was!Now the difficulty will be to keep this quality in. will post progress on both of these paintings at regular intervals.

Wirral pen Studios

Ok all over now. Had a good time over the weekend and thanks to all the people who took the time and made the effort to call around. Made lots of new friends and sold some work, so I am pleased with that. Here are a few general shots of my front room "gallery"

Wirral Open Studios.

On the weekend of 12 14 November I am taking part in the Wirral Open Studios.
For more information see http://wirral-open-studios.com