Art General – Peter's Art Blog

28 September 2025

Should Tutorials Be Graded

I’ve been running my online tuition site now for many years (next year will be its 23rd year of being live). It started out from humble beginnings, and an early setback meant I nearly gave up on it altogether, but I’m pleased to say that it continues to thrive to this day. In case you’re wondering, my early setback was...

Art General/Watercolour Comments: 8

30 March 2025

The Value of Research and Planning

This is a watercolour painting I did of Mousehole Harbour, in Cornwall, some years ago. Cornwall is a long way from West Yorkshire, which means it isn’t often I get a chance to visit, so it was with great expectations, last month, that we took the campervan down that way for a week’s touring; one of the prime locations we...

Art General/Locations/Techniques/Tips/Watercolour Comments: 2

27 November 2024

Managing Expectations

I’ve built two sheds in the garden recently. The assembly of which was quite a different experience in each case. Both sheds were delivered in sections that needed to be put together; the first shed bolted together quickly and easily, thanks to a well thought-out construction and clear, concise instructions. The second shed (technically, a small summer house) rang little...

Art General/Observations/Watercolour Comments: 4

29 October 2024

Artist or Text Prompt Engineer?

The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) marches on at a breathless pace and the existential threat to traditional artists become even greater. Or so it would seem if the news is to be believed (and lets not even begin to start looking at the rise of fake news…). Before I go any further, I feel I should reassure the reader...

Art General/Art Trends Comments: 0

29 September 2024

A One-Off (or is it?)

I hate writing things out on the laptop, losing it through some technological aberration and then having to type it all out again from scratch. It’s never the same the second time around. These blog posts are a good case in point; I write as I speak (and think), and apart from some minor editing for grammar and spelling, the...

Art General/Art Shows/Watercolour Comments: 0

27 August 2024

Lightweight En Plein Air Travel Easel

I’d like to start by sharing a few sizzling action shots from this year’s Alpha Painting Holiday in Dartmoor, in June, in which the group spent the week painting in some fantastic locations, and enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine. En plein air watercolour painting brings its own challenges; rain showers can mean having to pack away quickly and making a dash for...

Art General/Materials/Tips Comments: 0

29 January 2024

Where Reality Meets Imagination

There’s a place – which doesn’t have a name as far as I know, but it perhaps should have – where the reality of source material ends and the imagination begins. It’s un-chartable, yet fully explorable and malleable… and in some ways, it’s also where much of the magic happens. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Firstly, with...

Art General/Composition/Watercolour Comments: 0

28 September 2023

Free or Premium?

I consider myself to be reasonably generous when it comes to sharing my skills. I’m always happy to discuss my processes, and if someone asks me how I created a particular effect, I will generally spend as much time as is necessary, or appropriate, to explain how it was achieved. In part, this is down to remembering how it was...

Art General/Art Trends/Observations Comments: 4

30 June 2023

The Lure of The Mountains

It’s been a busy few months, what with moving house, fixing up the new (old) house and completing renovations to the loft, converting it into a new studio for me to work in. It’s been quite intense and, frankly, so busy that there hasn’t been much time for anything else. This month, however, I’m finally looking forward to some outdoor...

Art General/Observations/Sketching/Watercolour Comment: 1

8 May 2023

What’s your Specialist Subject?

Our new home is in Ingrow, on the edge of Keighley in West Yorkshire. One of its claims to fame is the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway – a unique 5-mile branch line railway, running heritage steam and diesel trains from the industrial landscape of Keighley to the stunning Bronte Country of Oxenhope. It runs across the bottom of an...

Art General/Observations/Watercolour Comments: 0

Category: Art General