” ” #1 Originality

” ‘Originality’ is the unsought and unnoticed product of a gifted artist’s successful attempt to be honest and truthful and to penetrate to the origins,…

Arboreal

When I was young I loved to climb and play in trees. On finding a comfortable branch I would rest and whilst doing so serene…

” ” #3 Fruits … like having their portrait painted

…”Fruits … like having their portrait painted. They seem to sit there and ask your forgiveness for fading. Their thought is given off with their…

Composing space

The following, is adapted from pages of a book written by my grandfather, Adrian Ryan – ‘Still Life Painting Techniques’ – a book that I…

” ” #4 Each a part of each other

“The knowledge of our differences and separateness is clarified and strengthened by the knowledge, held at the same time, of our oneness that we are…

” ” #5 Every thing must have a beginning

Illustrator: unknown “Every thing must have a beginning, to speak in Sanchean phrase; and that beginning must be linked to something that went before. The…

” ” #6 From C.G Jung’s ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections’

“Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place…

Caryatid (after Modigliani)

I did this study on paper of Caryatid by Modigliani when I was 16 or 17 and then it lived on the door of my…

Colour lovers of the world unite and take over

  Have a look at this amazing list of colours at Wikipedia, and the tantalizing names that have been found to describe them – both…

Daybreak at Ely Station

Death of a rat

Dead Rat by Mervyn Peake Were I a farmer I would call you vermin Because you’d be the villain of my crops And gnaw my…

The Dream files #1

I’m in an art workshop doing INSET training with several other lecturers. It’s a gloomy day – there isn’t enough light to see properly. I…

Joy rider

Tree and car in an unhappy meeting.

Palettes

As I paint I am often struck by the changing life of the palette and feel both exhilarated and aggrieved by how much freer it…

Walls of Isola Bella

Isola Bella, a small island on Lago Maggiore, Italy, was once a fishing village before being taken over by count Carlo III Borromeo (c.17th) who…

” ” #2 The heart has a yearning

“The heart has a yearning for the unknown, a longing to penetrate the deep shadow and the winding glade, where, as it seems, no human…