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Painting: If Not Here Then Where
This portrait of my partner started repainted substantially in June 2024, entitled ‘If Not Here Then Where’, is a deeply personal one that aims to capture a time when we were not sure if our location was the right one (we’re still not sure). We’ve spent years looking for other places to be the ‘right’ place to live, but have…
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New Work, Creative Process and AI
It’s no secret that I’m an advocate of AI for creative work. In a recent post on Instagram for The Night Studio, I compared the fear of the rise of AI for creatives to the fear of photography when it first arrived. The tools are in some ways crude at the moment and I understand the contentions that creators have…
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Sky Portrait Artist of the Year Experience
Well it’s been a busy time round here and lot’s to reflect on in the past few months. Not much new painting at the moment as I’ve been busy on other projects but can’t wait to get back to it now especially after watching Sky Portrait Artist of the Year again. It’s fired me up and reminded me that it’s…
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Painting: Portrait of Finn
Around April time I started in earnest trying to cut down the time it takes to do an alla-prima portrait. My target was to get it into a three hour window. This one of those ‘training’ paintings. I started with blue acrylic underpainting and then used oil colour on top of that. You can see progress thumbnails below. Finn is…
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How to Start and Finish Your Painting, Nine Practical Steps
Paintings often have no finite end point. Deciding when a piece of work is finished can be a difficult thing for even the most experienced artist. However, many paintings follow similar stages. There are some techniques that can help guide you through the creation process. In this article, I want to address both how to get off to the best…
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How to Be More Consistently Creative at Art
Are you looking to boost your creative output and make more interesting artwork? By improving your process, you can increase your chances of producing better ideas and having a more fulfilling creative experience. In this article, we’ll explore six pieces of advice for improving your creative thinking and taking your art to the next level. So don’t wait – start…
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Painting: Neowise
This painting reflects a time for me when I felt very connected to the night sky. This coincided with the arrival of the comet ‘Neowise’. I’m an avid sky watcher and events like this are very interesting to me. This is a self portrait and I’m reaching into the night sky, immersing my hands in the red that represents blood…
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Painting: Ronnie Buddha
Ronnie was a larger than life character who I encountered when he was studying welding at evening class. Uncompromising would the best way to describe him. He was a real north east Scotland character and the landscape in the background was intended to reflect this. I’m sad to report that recently I have learned of Ronnie’s untimely passing. Thoughts are…
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Painting: Self Portrait
This painting has a rich personal history. It was a very important one for me and was an affirmation of my identity at a very difficult time in my life. There is something of me in it that is not in any other work. I generally don’t like painting self-portraits, but I hadn’t painted one in many years. I was…
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Painting: Nocturne 18
This is an older painting of mine from 2018. I’d forgotten it existed honestly, although it hangs in our downstairs toilet at the moment! It had become such a part of the scenery that I’d stopped noticing it. Yesterday I nearly knocked it off the wall by accident while chasing a fly and it made me stop and look at…
Creativity and Self Development
