Another watercolour painting sold

I had a successful sale at another exhibition a few days ago, a beach scene.


I need to get down to finishing some new work ready for the summer exhibition, which I suspect will arrive with undue haste, what I want to know is where does all my time dissapear, answers on a postcard please.

Two more paintings sold

I sold two original paintings this week, more can be seen on my website, which reminds me I must do some updating there. The weather has been excellent this week as well, so as my wife dissapeared out on a ladies day yesterday I took the opportunity to visit a local Nature Reserve to take some wildlife photographs. This little Egret was doing a spot of fishing in one of the smaller stretches of water.

Ducks Landing

From one of the photographs from my trip to the Nature Reserve I created this acrylic painting, I was standing waiting for my wife who was in the shop, now there's a suprise! and these three ducks came in to land, so managed to grab a quick photograph, which has resulted in this painting. A reversal really of the ubiquitous ducks flying up the wall which seemed to be the de riguer domestic decor in the 1950's

Birds and Railway Engines

Since delivering my last painting I met the recipients at a wedding and they were thrilled at the painting of their cottage. Always nice to get feedback on ones efforts. Despite the recession I took the plunge and bought a new telephoto lens for my camera a couple of weeks ago. An ultra zoom it enables some great opportunities for birds. I captured these Gadwalls at a local nature reserve on a very cold day.


This morning the preserved steam locomotive Tangmere was passing nearby so took the opportunity to get a photograph as she crossed the railway viaduct on her way to Fareham.

Deep and Crisp and even

Well the UK weather has been a little extreme this last week with unprecedented levels of snowfall that has placed everywhere in chaos. The Government seem incapable of organising things, I'm sure all that hot air could have helped solve some problems!

It did give me the opportunity to get some photographs, these are of Portchester Castle an original building project of the Romans with extensions by the later Norman occupants, bet they didn't ask for planning permission.





A bit cold for painting outside, I guess the water would freeze any way so watercolours would be a non starter.

A Cottage painting commission

My first ever commission was a cottage for someone's daughter and over the years I have been asked to paint several peoples houses, not the Dulux dog thing you understand. Well history seems to be repeating itself again and I've just delivered my latest commission of a cottage that has been undergoing refurbishment.



If you would like to consider a commissioned painting,not neccessarily a house or cottage, just contact me through my website www.artyman.co.uk an enquiry will cost you nothing and there is no obligation so whatever your request just ask.

The next Stephen Spielberg

I've been playing with Windows Movie Maker and created a short video of a selection of some of my photographs, which I sell on Ebid which is a great site if you are looking for bargains as well. Although most people automatically think of eBay when buying online, there are alternatives and usually a lot friendlier with active communities which help keep the scammers at bay.

Whether I shall forge a new career as a movie producer I doubt it, anyway take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iStRMtzRmE0 Well enough playing I have a new commissioned painting to get on with so time to get my brushes wet.

A Happy New Year

A Happy New Year to you all, well not suprisingly I didn't get any painting done over the festive period, and I trust you all enjoyed yourselves as well. I am now geared up to attack 2009 with some vigour, well that's the plan anyway. I was pleased that my recent sales arrived in time for Christmas, and someone is now the proud owner of this acrylic painting.

The Christmas Rush

I expect like most people this is the time of year when there seems to be so much to do and so little time. I've been busy packing and shipping various things for the monthly charity auction that is held on eBid I've also just shipped this print to a buyer in the USA.


To avoid the crush at the shops I'm waiting for a couple of items in the post, buying online can save a lot of legwork. Whether I shall get much painting done over the festive period may probably be proportional to the amount of food and drink consumed, but I must be a disciplined artist.... yeah right!

May I wish all my readers, customers, past present and future, a Joyful Christmas and Happy New year.

Good News

I had my post operation trip to the hospital today, for the result of the biopsy of the growth that was removed from my hand. It was a "Bowenoid Keratosis", which sounds impressive, but then it could be a plant name, what do I know!! The Good news is that is was not malignant and so have the all clear, the downside is that I am now back on washing up duties.

Tomorrow the Gresley A4 Pacific steam locomotive 'Bittern' will be passing nearby railway line on a steam speacial trip, so I shall be out early tomorrow with my camera to try and get some shots.

A hospital trip and a new painting

Following a visit to my doctor I was referred to the local hospital for the removal of a skin cancer. Unfortunately this was on my brush hand so a partially completed painting had to wait until a couple of days ago before it could be resumed. As with most things there is always a plus side and it has excused me from dishwashing duties for the time being.

This is the painting, of a Great Western Railway pannier tank locomotive running alongside the River Dart in Devon. This is from a photograph I took of the scene about twenty years ago.



I have the stitches removed from my hand next Thursday,and I'm hoping they will finish in time for me to go and photograph a Gresley A4 Pacific locomotive that will be running a steam special that day.

Majestic Power

Following on from my trips to photograph preserved steam locomotives, I've just completed this painting of the "Duchess of Sutherland" one of Sir William Staniers most pwerful locomotive designs. Shown here in her old LMS livery of crimson and looking magnificent.



I have a hospital trip scheduled for later this week for a minor operation on my hand, so I don't expect I shall be painting for a bit, have to see how it goes I guess.

Train chasing again

I have been chasing trains again! When trying to obtain reference information for paintings you have to grab the opportunities when they present themselves. A coupl of weeks back I had a jaunt up to Oxfordshire to photograph the last survivor of the old Southern Railway King Arthur class locomotives 'Sir Lamiel' arriving a little late at one of my chosen locations she was just pulling away so only had the chance for a couple of grabbed shots.


The next was a little closer to home so I had more time, and despite the sun not fully co-operating by staying out these are a couple of the Bulleid Merchant Navy Class "Clan Line" running a Pullman special excursion from London to Southampton E Docks.

She is shown here having just pulled out of Eastleigh, her birthplace 48 years ago.

Here she is arriving in Southampton Docks having just crossed an ungated public road, a rare occurence these days.


I hope to commit this magnificient engine to paint shortly, so what this space, in the meantime you can see a couple of my other railway paintings on my website www.artyman.co.uk

A short holiday

After a rather dismal summer I managed to find a few days sunshine and took the opportunity to grab a short holiday on the Isle of Wight. Whilst not baking temperatures it was sunny and very pleasant with some stunning scenery near where we were staying. I have plenty of photographs, and perhaps the only slight dissappointment was that there were no old Southern Railway locomotives when we visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway at Havenstreet. They did have a fine collection of vintage carriages though, so not all was lost and they will prove useful reference for future paintings.

These are a few of the photo's that I took showing some of the magnificent views from St Catherines Down and further west along the coast toward Freshwater.








Since returning home I have sold three paintings at exhibition and now need to settle down to some serious work over the coming months to complete a commission and prepare for next years round of exhibitions.

Photographic expeditions

I've been out on a few photographic expeditions, gaining reference photographs for some of my future paintings. First was a trip to the Bluebell Railway in Sussex which I have not visited for many years. Had a pleasant day there with plenty to photograph and followed this with a quick visit to the nearby Sheffield Park gardens, which kept the wife happy :)

This was one of the shots of a U class Southern Railway locomotive. To see more of my train photographs just click the picture

The next was a BR "Britannia" class locomotive which was on a steam special run passing through Whitchurch, on it's way from London to Bath and Bristol, I thought I was going to miss it, having got slightly lost whilst looking for a good location to shoot from and ended up driving a lot further than anticipated, but made it in time.

And Yesterday the last ocean going Paddle Steamer "Waverley" was captured as she entered Portsmouth harbour, in some rare sunshine amongst all the rain we have been having.

I hope to utilise all these into paintings in due course, in the meantime why not check out my website www.artyman.co.uk to see what other delights are available.

Olympic Glory

Having now recovered from getting up early in the morning to watch the sailing from the Beijing Olympics, I've painted this watercolour in celebration of Ben Ainslie winning his third Olympic Gold medal. After his initial battle with Robert Schidt in the Lasers when he won silver, he moved on to the Finn class, vacated by British Gold Medallist Ian Percy, who also won Gold in the Star class this year. He has dominated the class since then and emphasises what an incredible sailor he is. Having previously been a National sailing champion myself, I know the dedication required to compete at this level.

A busy week

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks, trying to shake off a rather persistent cough made setting up for an exhibition over the Bank Holiday weekend rather hard going. However it was successful with three sales, and followed up this week with a succesful day out to obtain some photographs of a steam locomotive 'Duchess of Sutherland'. It was quite fun chasing it theough the Oxfordshire countryside and trying to obtain a suitable viewpoint, so hopefully the results will feature in a future painting. The rest of the day was spent visiting Buscot Park an old stately home that is the location of four famous Rose series paintings by Edward Burne Jones.

This is one of the train photographs

A Jack Russell commissioned painting

Had some good news on Tuesday I have sold two of my paintings from the Summer Exhibition, have been busy this week working on a commission, a totally new subject for me so quite a challenge. When I emailed the image to the client, she said it made her cry, so it sounds like I've managed to capture the character of her much loved pet.

A new venture

It's been a little strange this week, not really sure where all the time has dissappeared, some of it has been spent creating my first video for YouTube which can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBxaIvNnCII Trying to find some music of the correct length took some searching.

Setting up the exhibition this afternoon. If you fancy a personal visit to see my art in the flesh, so to speak, then the venue is Portsmouth Cathedral and it runs daily from Saturday 26th July until Friday 8th August, you might even bump into the artist. There are plenty of other interesting things to see in Portsmouth so could be worth having a day out.

Train Spotting

Following on from the train painting I did a few weeks back I searched the web to find some locations where I could photograph steam on a mainline. I came across a website and learnt of a steam special running from London Waterloo to Weymouth, being pulled by an old Southern Railway Bulleid air smoothed pacific locomotive 'Tangmere' one of the Battle of Britain class, appropriate in this the 90th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. I decided that a good vantage point would be to the west of Southampton Central station, unfortunately the weather hadn't taken any notice of the name of the train, 'Sunny Coast Special' and I ended up getting soaked, and what was worse was that after drying out all my gear including my mobile phone, I didn't get one shot worth keeping. The rain gave all the pictures a very grainy quality like something taken with an old box brownie.

Not to be deterred I found an old photograph taken on the Torbay - Kingswear line in Devon whilst on holiday with my son many years ago and this painting is the result.