Mediterranean Balcony Garden: A quick acrylic sketch

This is a painting I made last Friday during a break in the wonderful torrential rain. It shows our Mediterranean balcony garden with rain reflections on the terrace. Unlike most of my work, I finished it in a couple of hours, and it’s a plein-air painting – painted in front of the “motif.” I haven’t […]
Angel Painting: Gold leaf and acrylic give an icon-like quality to this figure

Within Daniel in the Lions’ Den is also an angel painting…..There was much debate about how to depict the angel. The final stages of this painting involved quite a lot of changes, and included adding the angel with his golden wings (gold leaf protected by shellac varnish)……now that feels better! Daniel needed his angel. This […]
On the theme of Daniel: Experimenting with different colours and forms

This is a contemporary Biblical painting on the theme of Daniel in the Lions’ Den. It is acrylic on canvas, with applied gold leaf, and measures 80cm x 80cm. The angels are depicted as ethereal globules of colour, but I’m not too happy with this treatment. Considering making some changes – I’ll post an update […]
Prophet and Cat

Ceramic Biblical Art I really enjoyed making this piece of ceramic Biblical art; a whimsical depiction of a prophet with his cat! For the discerning collector of high-performance Biblical prophets and cats, this must be the sculpture for you! I made it in terracotta clay, firing it with an engobe (matt-finish) glaze. Later I added […]
The Stone Gallery

The Stone Gallery, run by the Marshall family in Burford, Oxfordshire, has recently opened an exhibition to celebrate their 100th year. I’m very honoured to be one of the participating artists. The exhibition features work by several artists and I have eight works on display (and for sale). They can be seen in the picture […]
Dejeuner des Canotiers

This photograph (above) was taken on our fantastic school trip to Sde Boker in the Negev desert this last Friday. The light and composition of the scene strongly recalled Renoir’s famous painting Dejeuner des Canotiers which I talked about in a recent post! Sde Boker is where David Ben Gurion, Israel’s very first prime minister, had his […]
New Promised Land

After 40 years of wandering in the desert, the people of Israel are finally entering the Promised Land! This is a newly-commissioned painting based on an earlier version of this scene. I’ve just finished varnishing it and am soon to send it to its new home. The Judaean hills, covered in ancient goat-trails, provided the […]
New Children’s Bible

The new Children’s Bible from Westminster John Knox Press (WJK) is now out. A beautifully designed, new children’s Bible, featuring several of my illustrations (with lots of great work by other artists). It’s a truly engaging and thought-provoking introduction to the Bible and issues of faith for Christian children everywhere. Highly recommended! From the publisher’s website: […]
Renoir balcony

One of my favourite books is Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir (1958). It’s a most loving and beautifully detailed account of the great Impressionist painter. Highly recommended! And here is Renoir’s beautiful Le Déjeuner des Canotiers (1881). And amazingly, below it, is the same balcony today. For many years the building was standing derelict […]
Noah – Biblical relief sculpture

This Biblical relief sculpture, Noah and the Dove, is made of a light-coloured clay (called Yellow Terrazzo), with an inlay of smoked glass. Many of the elements are finished with acrylic paint. (See my post from September, showing how it was made).The design is simple, primitive, direct and, I hope, powerful. The motif of the […]