The temptation whenever I start a new painting is to delve straight into it with the paintbrush and paint making all the necessary corrections as I go along. I am a colourist, I love colour and I want to expel all that colour information that makes up my painting as soon as possible.

I know however from bitter experience that this does not always yield the results I want; that somehow the information that passes from my head through my hand and onto the canvas gets lost in translation somewhere along the way. So it is a useful thing sometimes probably most times to take a step back and plan a little.

I have started my latest painting; a fruit and veg stall from a sketch taken on a visit to Marrakesh in 2011. Preparation is everything and so after laying on the coloured acrylic ground – a mixture of cadmium red light hue and yellow ochre to set the warm tones I am now sketching out the details in charcoal. I look forward to laying on the colour but not before I am satisfied that the drawing is complete.

I spent the best part of Sunday morning washing my brushes as in properly rinsing them out in white spirit and then lathering up some brush cleaner and rubbing the brushes in my palms to get all the oil residue out of the ferrules. This is an onerous task especially if you don’t do it as often as you should but to make sure you get good clean colours it us like everything else a necessary evil.

Have a blessed day my friends. Stay focused.

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