Lemons in a shallow bowl
Oil painting on canvas, alla prima, worked wet into wet in thick loaded strokes. A bowl of lemons on a dark tabletop where the paint stands proud of the surface and catches the gallery light along every ridge, each ridge casting its own small shadow. Single warm light from the upper left. The dark ground is laid in broad knife strokes that stay visible. Palette of cadmium yellow, raw umber and lead white. Visible brush marks, palette knife edges, one stroke of pure white left unblended on the nearest lemon, 4:5.
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Room with the shutters closed
Oil painting on canvas, built in warm transparent layers over a mid-tone ground. A dim interior with the shutters closed and one thin slot of hard daylight coming through where they do not quite meet, that slot painted opaquely and thickly while everything else stays thin and transparent. A chair and a table half lost in the dark. Palette of transparent brown and umber throughout with one passage of thick warm white. Thin darks where the ground shows through, one loaded highlight on the chair back, 4:3.
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Bread and a dark jug
Oil painting on board, built in blocky planes laid with a knife. A round loaf and a dark stoneware jug on a pale cloth, every form faceted into flat planes of slightly different value rather than smoothly modelled, so the objects read as constructed. The cloth is two or three broad knife strokes only. Single light from the right. Palette of warm crust brown, near-black jug and cool white cloth. Hard ridges where each plane meets the next, board tone showing at the edges, 4:5.
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Kitchen table in the morning
Oil painting on canvas, painted quickly in a single morning session. A kitchen table under a window with a few objects on it, the drawing of the objects loose and approximate while the fall of the light across the table and the exact value of the window are carefully observed. Wet paint dragged into wet at every edge. Palette of cool window white, warm table ochre and grey-blue shadow. Visible bristle tracks throughout, one object left as a single unresolved smear of paint, 16:9.
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Snow field with a dark line of trees
Oil painting on canvas, built with broad knife strokes. A snow field crossed by a dark line of bare trees at the far edge, the snow laid in only a few very large clean knife strokes of near-white tinted differently in each so the field stays luminous rather than muddied. The trees are one dark loaded drag across the horizon. Cold flat light. Palette of blue-white, warm white and near-black. Hard knife edges where the strokes meet and one place where the knife has lifted paint away to bare canvas, 4:3.
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Head against a scraped ground
Oil painting on linen. A head painted with a knife in thick planes, set against a background where the paint has been scraped back down to the stained ground with a broad blade, leaving a faint ghost of the colour that was there and the linen weave showing through at that thin edge. The head stays thick and the surround stays thin. Palette of warm flesh planes against a scraped grey-umber ground. Knife ridges on the face, drag marks and canvas texture in the scraped area, 9:16.
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Road running out of the frame
Oil painting on canvas board, painted in one sitting. A pale road crossing open country and running out of the right of the frame, the whole road carried in one continuous unbroken stroke of a loaded flat brush from edge to edge rather than being built up in sections. Scrubbed country either side. Low warm side light. Palette of warm pale road, olive and dun country, thin blue sky. The single road stroke visibly thicker than everything around it, bristle tracks along its length, 16:9.
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Woman in a dark collar
Oil painting on panel, built in thin transparent glazes over a dry warm earth underpainting that still shows through at the temple and along the jaw. A woman in a dark collar turned three quarters to the light, the flesh tones cool over that warm base so the two layers read separately. Single soft source from the left. The background is a thin scumble letting the panel tone show. Palette of warm ochre beneath, cool grey-pink above, near-black collar. Soft blended edges at the shadow side and one crisp edge at the lit cheek, 3:4.
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Standing figure blocked in
Oil study on toned linen, deliberately unfinished. A standing figure where the head and one shoulder are worked up to a resolved finish with real modelling, while the legs remain a loose charcoal and thin paint block-in and the lower canvas is left as bare toned ground with the drawing lines still showing. Cool north light from the left. Palette of warm grey ground, muted flesh tones and charcoal line. Visible drawing beneath the paint, a scraped-back passage at the hip, 9:16.
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Self portrait with a loaded brush
Oil painting on canvas, painted in thick decisive strokes with almost no correction, the whole head built from a small number of confident marks rather than blended gradually. A painter looking directly out, brow and cheekbone each carried by a single loaded stroke and the eye sockets stated in two dark marks. Dark ground scraped in behind. Palette of raw umber, flesh ochre, lead white and one note of viridian in the shadow. Paint ridges holding the shape of the bristles, one stroke half lifted, 1:1.
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Fish on a newspaper
Oil painting on board, painted rapidly in one sitting. Two whole fish laid on a sheet of newspaper, their wet silver sides carried by ridges of thick lead white dragged along the flank and left unblended, the newspaper beneath scrubbed in thinly with grey and one suggestion of print. Cool overhead light. Palette of silver-grey, cold blue-green and warm newsprint. Thick paint on the fish against thin paint everywhere else, a knife scrape through the background, 4:5.
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Lamp on a table at night
Oil painting on canvas. A table lamp lit at night in a dark room, the lampshade and the pool of light on the table built in very thick opaque paint that stands proud of the surface, while the whole surrounding darkness is painted so thinly that the canvas tone shows through it. The two thicknesses are obvious to the eye. Palette of thick warm cream and ochre against a thin transparent blue-black. Impasto ridges in the lit area catching real light, bare canvas at the corners, 5:4.
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Hands in a lap
Oil painting on canvas, cropped so only a pair of hands resting in a lap and the surrounding fabric are in frame with no face. The hands are built from a small number of thick planes of different value rather than drawn in outline, each knuckle a single loaded stroke. The skirt fabric beneath is scrubbed in thinly. Soft light from the upper left. Palette of warm flesh, cool grey shadow and deep indigo fabric. Paint standing proud on the knuckles, thin paint in the fabric folds, 4:5.
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Field under a moving sky
Oil painting on canvas board, painted rapidly in one sitting. A flat field beneath a broken sky, the sky laid in fast wet sweeping strokes that drag one colour through another without blending, while the field below is built in shorter denser marks. Light breaking through in one place. The horizon sits low. Palette of ultramarine and lead white above, olive and yellow ochre below. Loaded brush marks with visible bristle tracks, one thin place where the board tone shows through the sky, 16:9.
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Peonies going over
Oil painting on canvas, built almost entirely with a palette knife and no brush anywhere in the flower heads. Blown peonies past their best, each petal a single flat plane of paint laid on and lifted so it leaves a hard edge and a ridge, the colour only partly mixed so streaks of two pinks run through one stroke. Dark green ground scraped thin behind. Palette of rose madder, lead white and viridian. Knife edges catching the light, paint standing several millimetres proud at the petal tips, 1:1.
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Swell running under a grey sky
Oil painting on canvas, painted in heavy directional strokes that follow the run of the water. Open sea swell under a flat grey sky, each wave face laid in with one loaded stroke running the length of the swell and the crests broken with a dry drag of white that catches only the tops of the ridges below. No land anywhere. Palette of grey-green, slate and lead white. Thick paint on the crests and thin scraped paint in the troughs, one bare patch of ground at the horizon, 5:4.
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Wooded valley in haze
Oil painting on panel, built in successive thin glazes with each distance a separate layer. A wooded valley of three receding ridges where the nearest is painted thickly and warm, the middle thinner and cooler over it, and the furthest a single pale blue glaze so thin the panel tone shows through. Haze in the valleys. Palette of warm olive near, grey-green middle, pale blue far. Thick near foliage worked with a loaded brush against almost transparent distance, 4:3.
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Back turned to the window
Oil painting on linen. A seated figure seen from behind against a bright window, the figure itself painted thinly and transparently in cool dark glazes with almost no detail, while the window and the light spilling around the silhouette are laid in thickly and opaquely. The contrast between thin dark and thick light is the whole picture. Palette of transparent blue-black figure against thick warm white light. Ground visible through the figure in places, one bright impasto edge along the shoulder, 3:4.
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Cut onion on a board
Oil painting on panel, worked wet. A halved onion on a wooden board where the concentric rings have been drawn into the still wet paint with the sharpened end of a brush handle, cutting through the pale surface layer to the darker paint beneath rather than being painted on top. The board is two broad strokes. Single warm light from the left. Palette of pearl white, violet-grey and warm board brown. Incised lines with paint pushed up into small ridges either side, 1:1.
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Harbour at low tide
Oil painting on panel. Moored boats sitting on the mud at low tide, the mud painted in thin transparent brown glazes over a warm ground so it reads as a wet stained surface rather than a solid colour, with the boats above it in thicker and more opaque paint. Reflections in the shallow channels are scraped in with a rag. Flat overcast light. Palette of transparent umber and sienna below, dull hull colours above. Rag marks in the mud, one boat hull carried in a single thick stroke, 4:3.
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