The Bristol Art Prize - Call For Entries

The Bristol Art Prize is a new competition set up by the people who have been running the Bath Prize for the last few years. The Bristol Prize looks to be even bigger, anybody can enter and if your work is selected you have the opportunity to be part of a massive exhibition at the Guildhall in the centre of Bristol. The main award is a purchase prize for £5,000 and I believe more awards will be added to the website very soon. Entry deadline is Sunday 8th September.

Why not take a look - www.bristolartprize.co.uk

'Settling In' & 'A Winter's Guest'

Finished, scanned and packed all ready to be shipped.

A Winter's Guest

Watercolour / Gouache

24 x 31cm

Settling In

Watercolour / Gouache

24 x 31cm 

Hedgehogs Progress

I've made a start on the next in my series of whimsical-animal-based-fantasy watercolour paintings (I need to think of a better title).

I'm really trying to push the warm and cool colour relationships in this painting and I'll have to be careful when I'm painting the snow, I've never been much good at that.

Badger Progress

I've started the colour work which is just about all you can see as my mobile phone camera is too blurry.

Badger Underpainting

Here's a little under-painting I completed today. On to the colour tomorrow.

Royal Crescent Finished

Hurray! I finally finished my 6ft long painting of the Royal Crescent in Bath. Below you can see a stitched photograph which will have to do for now until I scan it properly.

Now let me get some sleep.

Online Security

Here's a spot illustration I did last month for Public Finance. It was to feature alongside an article about the ever changing battlefront that is online security.

It's completely different to my usual style but with it's retro feel I quite like it. The texture was actually taken from an older illustration of mine - reduce, re-use, recycle!

The Actuary Cover 'Planning A Prosperous Retirement'

Last month I worked on the cover for The Actuary magazine. The brief was to draw a man in his mid forties with the top of his head taken off so you could see all the wonderful things he is planning to do in his retirement. These activities include sailing, cycling, drinking champagne, throwing money in the air, all the things we hope for but might not necessarily achieve. I suppose showing pensioners with bad backs and arthritis isn't so inspiring.

I'm really chuffed to say that cover junkie picked up on this illustration, click here to view it as it's supposed to be seen.

Spectrum 20

A list of successful entrants into Spectrum 20 has been revealed. I'm incredibly pleased to announce that this year my watercolour 'Autumn Scribe' will be one of the hundreds of images in the pages of the annual.

For those new to Spectrum visit the website. If you're a fan of fantastic art (Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Historical, Surrealism) then the annuals are a must for your bookshelf.

Brave New World Competition Entires Pt.2

I have previously posted two pieces of artwork I created for the House Of Illustration 'Brave New World' Competition. Below you can see the other two images that went with my full entry. The first is a watercolour showing Linda as she succumbs to a soma induced oblivion. The vast majority of this painting was done in Paynes Grey to maintain a blue cast to the painting. The other image is dominated by Cadmium Red to suggest the red lighting used in the Solidarity Services.