Hi Jean and many thanks for this, I really appreciate the feedback and the kind wishes!

Hi Chloe and thanks so much for your kind words about, well about just everything really!! So pleased that you like the blog and my paintings and really appreciate you taking the time to get in touch!

I love how you’ve styled your pages as well, they’re simplistic and clear, setting the emphasis on the paintings rather than anything else. It is a great blog! ;)

My pleasure Rick and thanks for your kind comments about my work and the blog – much appreciated! I also meant to thank you for alerting me to the sad news of Ron Ranson’s passing. He was such a positive force in watercolour painting and an inspiration to so many.

Thanks for the quick response… Blog is phenomenal, great work….

Hi Rick and many thanks for stopping by. I think Wesson and Seago are such brilliant influences to have (although I’m hugely biased!).
I do have a touch of Lamp black in my palette but this is more of a not towards Rowland Hilder who used it quite a bit, especially in his sketches. I tend to mix my own darks now but find that the lamp black, mixed with any number of yellows, can lead to some wonderful greens. I try to avoid using it on any large dark areas as I find it can ‘kill’ the area off. I’ve had much more success with darks by combining ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna or burnt umber.
For my skies, I do usually use a squirrel hair mop brush – the ones that I’m mainly using at the moment are the Escoda ones that feel a little stiffer than some squirrel hair mop brushes I’ve used (like the Winsor and Newton, pro-arte or da Vinci brushes). Basically I’ve tried far more brushes than is necessary! I think I should just try to pick say 5 brushes and just use them solidly and see how I get on instead of my constant chopping and changing. Hope that this is of some help / use and thanks for getting in touch – good luck with your painting!

Thank you John happy that I found you also on Instagram!

Thanks so much Carolina and many congratulations on your amazing milestone – I’ll be visiting again very soon!