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B Type London Bus - Charcoal on paper
SOLD |
This was made before I started painting. I had a bit of success with my first ever charcoal steam locomotive, and then the same with my first ever electric tram. Hello, thought I, there must be a market for a bus. Nope. Still, it's a nice subject. The Ole Bill B Type bus saw good service in world war one, as well as on the streets of the capital, where they were used to ferry troops to the front.
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Isetta Bubble Car - Acrylic on canvas board - 10x12in
NOT FOR SALE |
Now, I have always had a thing about Bubble cars - in particular the Messerschmidt Kabineroller, the Heinkel Trojan, which you can see picture a little further down this page, and my favourite of all, the BMW Isetta. There's not many of my paintings that I didn't either paint for or give away to someone else, and that I wouldn't sell. But this one is going nowhere.It sits on my bookshelves, and it makes me happy.
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Chevrolet Corvette - Acrylic on canvas board - 10 x 12 in
SOLD |
This one again I thought might just be an appealing subject. The story behind it is clear in the picture - stopping for gas at a windswept gas station on a dark desert highway, being chased by a storm. You can't get much more evocative than that. I like the little red corvette, and I like the gas station, but the clouds and the tree could be a lot better, and would be if I did it again now. But this was all part of the learning process. I've had this one up for sale for a long time, but it just didn't seem to have the appeal of some of the others.
In fact it was a good 6 months or more after I first put it up for sale that it actually found a buyer. Never mind, I still had the pleasure of painting it, an there were definitely things I learned from doing it.
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VW Camper Van - Acrylic on canvas board 20x16 in
NOT FOR SALE |
My middle daughter, Zara, has a degree in Art, and she's probably been my most enthusiastic supporter. I only went along to the Artists' group in the first place because she wanted to go and to check it out. So the second painting I made was the camper van in red and white which is a little further down this page. She likes it, but I don't think it's very good. So 6 months later I decided to have another go, and a larger, 16x12 canvas, which is this one here. It's better, not perfect though - I'm thinking of the front bumper. Never mind - the next one will be perfect.
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Heinkel Trojan Bubble Car - Acrylic on Canvas board 10x12in
SOLD |
The Heinkel Trojan Bubble Car is similar to my favourite BMW Isetta in many ways, not least the way that access to the interior is gained though opening up the whole front of the car, and I wanted to show that in this picture, It's painted on a very cheap and cheerful stretched canvas, and as a rule I have to say I do prefer painting on canvas boards. But there you go, it was fun to do, and it sold at the first time of asking which is never to be sniffed at.
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VW Camper van - Acrylic on Canvas board - 12 x 10 in
NOT FOR SALE |
This is the first camper van that I painted for Zara. i wouldn't exactly say I cringe when I look at it now, but I do look at it and see something which I'd like to think I could do a lot better if I did it again now. But then you have to start somewhere, and the idea is to learn from what you've done before to try to develop your skills as much as you can.
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Fairground Engine 12x10
SOLD |
This is frankly pushing it a bit as a road vehicle, but that is what it is. This is a charming preserved fairground engine.Strictly speaking it probably belongs more with the steam engines and other rail vehicles, but what the hell.
In October of 2016 I picked up my watercolours again after more than a year. I bought a proper pad of water colour paper, rather than the rubbish that I'd been using before, and picked a photo of one of my favourite Glasgow trams, as a subject. Frankly, I don't think that the painting I produced, which you can see on the trams page if you're desperate, is all that good. But . . . there were bits of it where I thought I was getting somewhere. It encouraged me enough to make me want to do it better, and so I read several books on basic water colour painting, and had another go. The result was the painting of Lincoln Cathedral and city walls wh
ich you can see in my Gallery. It is by no means perfect - there are quite a few things that I did wrong with it. However it is significantly much better than any water colour I'd done before. So, let's cut a long story slightly shorter. This is a Green Line bus, which I painted using mostly gouache, although I did use a wash of ordinary watercolour to darken the main bus. It's not as bright and vivid as the acrylics, but then it wouldn't be.
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| SOLD |
This next is a line and wash picture of some old grand prix cars. I think that this is a little bit cynical, since I'm learning to work with line and wash, and I thought that this might just be a commercial subject. If I'm honest, it hasn't proven to be so yet, but I find one has to have a little patience with these things, and let people find what you're doing first before you start worrying about whether anyone is even going to buy it or not. It's one of the first products I placed within my Etsy shop. Old grand prix cars from the 50s and 60s are not a subject that I feel I'm anything like done with just yet, either, but for the time being this is sort of an only child.
Nothing daunted, though, I did feel that there might be a market in producing some line and wash pictures of classic British production cars of the 60s and 70s. This is way I decided on this first one, the Triumph Herald. Cards in the table, as a line and wash picture I really rather like this one. The Triumph Herald, being one of those cars which was pretty widespread in its day and inspired affection even in those who didn't ever own or drive one, I thought that it might have an appeal to owners and drivers.
Its early days yet and so it's probably too early to decide whether this latest change of strategy will pay any kind of dividends of not. Still, I have decided that it's a tactic worth persisting with for a while, and so I made my second choice of classic car to portray in the unique shape of the Ford Anglia. It's one of those cars of which everyone of a certain age either drove one, had parents who drove one, or knew people who drove one. Not so common today, they can still be seen here and there, and to me there's no doubt of the affection in which they are held by their owners and drivers. I don't like this painting quite as much as the Herald, but I still think it is not a bad piece of work and has a chance of finding a home.
Having opened my Etsy shop I had hopes that I might establish a niche with the line and wash cars
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| SOLD |
particularly. I have no idea how long it takes to become established and start to pick up sales, so it seemed to me that I might just as well go niche within a niche. You know from my comments above that I have already painted an Isetta and a Heinkel Trojan in acrylic, because I love 'bubble' cars. Well, it occurred to me that other people do s well, and so I started with this one. I did, over a year ago, sketch out a canvas to do an acrylic painting of a Messeschmidt kabineroller , but never got round to it.
I did actually paint a Heinkel Trojan Kabine last year, athough that painting was a little quirky because the cabin door was open. Still sold, mind you. So I painted this one. It looked a little small on the page, and so it struck me
that I could put the Trojan badge in the background, and I'm really glad that I did so, for I like the effect. As to whether this series of line and wash paintings will have the desired effect within my Etsy shop - well, time alone will tell on that score.
Well, you know how it is. Obviously there were more than just the three models of so-called 'bubble cars' and micro cars of the 50s and 60s, but for me there are three ionic ones. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the Messerschmidt and the 4 wheel version, the 'Tiger' (although strictly speaking that wasn't a Messerschmidt) , and I think the Heinkel is a beautiful machine. But we all have our favourites, and if you held my arm up behind my back and forced me to tell you mine, then I'd have to go for an Isetta. There's not a lot in it, mind you, between the Isetta and the Trojan,
but there it is, that's how I feel. So once I'd completed the Messerschmidt and the Trojan, then there really was no choice for me. I really liked the way that putting the Trojan badge into the previous picture had worked, and so I did the same trick with this one, and I think that it does give the picture a little more.
At the end of March 2018 I set myself the challenge of producing at least one sketch - any medium , any subject - each day for a whole year. During this time I sketched several vehicles - here's a selection of them underneath: -
In June 2018 I also undertook the 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge. This involved making 30 watercolour paintings during the month of June, where you paint directly onto the paper without having made any pencil sketches first. The Vespa above is an example of this. The next painting, of a B Type London Bus was my last - I actually made 35 paintings during June 2018, and I like it because, even though it is not necessarily a perfect example of what you can do with watercolour that you can't do with other media, the finished painting is far closer to what I've painted in acrylics in the past than watercolour, and for this subject matter I think that works.
During the lockdown of 2020 I painted a number of road vehicles -
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2020 Farmtrac Tractor
SOLD |
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2020 Vintage Van
SOLD |
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| 'Sloppy Jalopy' 2020 |
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Old Fire Engine 2021
SOLD |
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Tow Truck 2021
SOLD |
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Mr. Whippy 2021
SOLD |
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Unigate Milk Float 2021
SOLD |
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| JCB 2021 |
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VW Camper
SOLD
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| Citroen 2CV |
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VW Beetle
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| Ford Anglia Police Car |
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| Rover P5 |
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| Austin Mini |
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Hillman Imp
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| Fiat 500 |
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| Morris Minor Traveller |
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| Toyota Celica |
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| Citroen 2CV |
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| Ford Mustang |
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| VW Karmann Ghia |
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| E Type Jaguar |
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| Volvo P1800 |
Since then I've made just a couple of ink sketches of old buses
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Type B Bus in Acton
In June 2022 I undertook the 30x30 challenge in June to produce 30 direct watercolours by the end of the month. I was so happy with what I thought was notable progress in my painting that I went on to produce this trilogy of bus pictures from my home town, the London Borough of Ealing. For the second one I used the same black and white reference photograph that I used for the ink sketch above
607 Trolleybus approaching Ealing Broadway c. 1950 Watercolour |
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| Type B Bus in Acton High Street Watercolour |
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| AEC Routemaster bus on the 207 route in West Ealing c. 1985 - Watercolour |
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| Riga Trolleybus 2023 |
In October of 2016 I picked up my watercolours again after more than a year. I bought a proper pad of water colour paper, rather than the rubbish that I'd been using before, and picked a photo of one of my favourite Glasgow trams, as a subject. Frankly, I don't think that the painting I produced, which you can see on the trams page if you're desperate, is all that good. But . . . there were bits of it where I thought I was getting somewhere. It encouraged me enough to make me want to do it better, and so I read several books on basic water colour painting, and had another go. The result was the painting of Lincoln Cathedral and city walls which you can see in my Gallery. It is by no means perfect - there are quite a few things that I did wrong with it. However it is significantly much better than any water colour I'd done before. So, let's cut a long story slightly shorter. This is a Green Line bus, which I painted using mostly gouache, although I did use a wash of ordinary watercolour to darken the main bus. It's not as bright and vivid as the acrylics, but then it wouldn't be. 
that I could put the Trojan badge in the background, and I'm really glad that I did so, for I like the effect. As to whether this series of line and wash paintings will have the desired effect within my Etsy shop - well, time alone will tell on that score. 
In June 2018 I also undertook the 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge. This involved making 30 watercolour paintings during the month of June, where you paint directly onto the paper without having made any pencil sketches first. The Vespa above is an example of this. The next painting, of a B Type London Bus was my last - I actually made 35 paintings during June 2018, and I like it because, even though it is not necessarily a perfect example of what you can do with watercolour that you can't do with other media, the finished painting is far closer to what I've painted in acrylics in the past than watercolour, and for this subject matter I think that works.
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