The book!

The 'Am3rica' art book is now available to order online at my Etsy store here

Three Artists Paint...

Every year fellow artists Matt Cruickshank, Mike Dutton and I choose a destination and head there to paint and draw. We just did our fifth annual trip together! Below is my latest video from our travels to New Mexico (+ the four previous trips).


Last year we went to Mexico City- an amazing destination to explore through paint and drawing.


Year three was New Orleans


Our second adventure was to Joshua Tree...


... and the first trip was to Yuma county in Northern California.

Summer '16

It was a long, hot summer in Los Angeles and a creative one for me. I got out and about and kept up the plein air painting. See dozens more videos of me painting and drawing on my You Tube channel.

The Big Island

Painting trip to Hawaii's Big Island. . .

End of another year

This is the end of another year- here are the highlights of 2015 from my Instagram feed . . .

Joshua Tree

1. 'Hall of Horrors' 9"x5" gouache on water colour paper

2. 'Dawn at Twenty Nine Palms' 9"x5" gouache on water colour paper

3. 'Desert Moon' 9"x5" gouache on water colour paper

4.   'Simian Rock' 9"x5" gouache on water colour paper

5. 'Hidden Valley' 8"x8" gouache on water colour paper

6.  'Sentinel' 9"x5" gouache on water colour paper

7. 'Intersection Climbers' 9"x5" gouache on water colour paper

. . . and here's a short film I cut of our trip

Los Angeles Plein Air Festival 2015

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an 'Honorable Mention' in the Los Angeles Plein Air Festival 2015 two weeks ago. It was a really hot day but we all muddled through. Here are the three pieces I submitted.

  'The Must'

'The  Pan American Building'

'Indian Alley' 112 Winston

Last Days of Summer

More architecture sketching while exploring Los Angeles . . .

 '8 Bit' beach house at Marina Del Rey

Culver City High School

Culver City Theatre

 L.A. School of Performing Arts, Downtown

Sacred Heart Chapel, LMU campus

 Downtown Los Angeles

 Arts District

Little Tokyo

Dennis Hopper's old pad (designed by Frank Gehry)

 Vista theater, Silverlake

 Wolf's Lair compound, Hollywood Hills

 Hollyhock House, Barnsdall Park (Frank Lloyd Wright)

 Manhattan Beach

 'Snow White cottages', Los Feliz

Ballona Creek Bike Path, Culver City

'Noir' architecture L.A.

More exploring Los Angeles with paint. I had 2 architectural targets this weekend: first the 'Spadena House' or 'Witch's House' in Beverly Hills, another example of 'storybook' architecture. 

A quick sketch to familiarize myself with the architecture and figure out any tough perspective problems. I'm also looking for detail: both to include and exclude. The property has a very interesting garden but I had to pare down the detail to the fence, the bridge and some choice flora and foliage.

I've noticed the curb markers in Los Angeles and this address has an apt design.

 Leaving Beverly Hills I wound up Sunset Blvd into the Hollywood hills to find the 'Dietrichson House' from Billy Wilder's 'Double Indemnity'. "It was one of those California-Spanish houses everyone was nuts about ten or fifteen years ago; this one must've cost somebody about thirty-thousand bucks...that is, if he ever finished paying for it." - Walter Neff

I made a quick sketch of the building to wrap my head around the architecture. There are some tricky planes and decorative elements in this one. It also makes me focus mentally on the colour choices I might make; taking note of the multiple greens in the shrubbery, what colour may work for the shadow area, the accent of the painted window frames etc. 

A resident told me the house opposite was where James Dean lived before he died. I made a quick sketch before heading home. I'll come back to paint that one again.