Fielding Colour

This is from a photograph I took when I was last in England. It is of rapeseed fields which are in full bloom in May.

'Springtime Fields' 8" x 8" acrylic on board.

The Sun of the Parts

'Sunny Cove' 6" x 8" Oil on Canvas. This is taken from a photograph by one of my cousins of a beach in Cornwall, England. Cornwall has beautiful, rugged coastline as well as some quaint harbours and towns. I always visit Cornwall when I visit England as I have friends and family there.

I wanted to keep the painting's complexity to a minimum to stress the simple forms of the cliffs and a sense of depth.

I've had guests from England staying with me for the last few days and it has been fun to share some southern California experiences with them: bonfire and hot dogs at the beach, sunsets over the ocean, surfing, shopping and people watching at Laguna Beach, eating where the locals go, and a visit to the Mission in San Juan Capistrano.

This Lily is from one of the Mission's fountains.

Now the guests have gone it is time to wash and put away the sheets and towels, put the furniture back in place, and return to painting.

That Takes the Cake

Every year I make an English Christmas cake. This is a fruit cake covered by a layer of marzipan followed by a layer of royal icing. 

I start the cake the night before cooking by mixing the dried fruit with a few tablespoons of orange juice. The next day the rest of the ingredients are added and the cake is baked for four hours. Only this year I decided to forget about it and it baked for an additional 90 minutes. But it looks alright.

I leave the cake packed in a container to rest for a while before starting the next layer.

When I visit England I always buy several packs of marzipan. You can buy it in the States where it is called almond paste but the packages are too small. In England it is sold in a package large enough to cover an eight inch cake (with just enough left over for a little treat.

This isn't my neatest job but it will be covered up so it doesn't really matter.

Next I leave the cake out for three days so the marzipan will dry out otherwise the oils in the marzipan can seep into and colour the icing.

The final layer is the royal icing. This is made from icing sugar (powdered sugar) and egg whites. The sugar is slowly added to the egg whites until it becomes very thick and then the mixture is whipped with an electric mixer. Finally it is spread over the cake and left out for the icing to harden.

There are various ways to decorate a cake. I go for the easy option of roughing it up on top to stimulate snow. I then use different decorations to create a little winter scene. Thanks to my friend Nicola for sending me these ornaments.

Once the icing has hardened, all that's left is to put the cake away some where cold and dry until the evening of Christmas Day when it is traditional to cut the cake. I love Christmas cake so I can't wait.

Cake and icing recipe and instructions courtesy of Delia Smith's Christmas Cook Book.

Ho Ho Ho

Keeping in the Christmas spirit this is another post from my visit to Roger's Garden. As well as having an array of Christmas trees, the shop also has a myriad of olde worlde Santas' or Father Christmas as we call him in England.

I love this beach-inspired Santa.

Not a Santa but I couldn't resist including it.

Sign of the Times

This is my last post about my trip to England last month.


Something I love to do is visit artist's homes or studios. In Provence, a few years back, I was able to visit Renoir's home/studio and Cezanne's studio.
In London I visited the home of the artist Frederic Lord Leighton.

I last visited about 16 years ago and I wanted to see it again on this trip. A bonus was that the friend I stay with in London had never been there and that the house was exhibiting Victorian Visions: Pre-Raphaelite and Nineteenth-Century Art from the John Schaeffer Collection. I missed seeing this in America a few years ago so it was a happy coincidence to get another opportunity to see it.


Go here to see a picture and also a virtual tour of the magnificent Arab Hall at Leighton House which is my favourite room there.

One of the things I like to happen upon when I walk around London are the blue plaques. These are blue plaques placed on buildings associated with 'notable figures of the past'. See more about the scheme here. Some are people I've heard of and some not which can spark some research. Some of these buildings, like Leighton House, are museums and open to the public but many are private homes.


In the same area where my friend lives is a plaque for another artist.

I don't know much about Walter Sickert although I saw some of his work on my visit to Tate britain. He was a member of the Camden Town group. I want to learn more about this group in the coming months.

Underground Art

One of the must dos for me on any trip to England is a visit to Tate Britain. In particular, I love the Pre-Raphaelite paintings there. While there, I also attended the 'Picasso and Modern British Art' show.
Picasso is an artist I have mixed feelings about but he had a tremendous impact on art overall and, as this shows, a very clear influence on British art in the early 20th Century.


If you travel to Tate Britain via the Underground train system ('the Tube'), you can get a foretaste of some of the wonderful artworks on show there as you exit Pimlico Station.

Some Tube underpasses are not the most delightful places to walk through but this one bring a jolt of colour to those using it.

City beach

When it's sunny and warm and you're dreaming of the beach but you live in a big city away from the coast you have to improvise.

Here are some resourceful Londoners taking advantage of low tide.

This and That

Some random images from my trip to England.

A London street tucked away from the hustle and bustle. 

On the fringes of Hyde Park in London.

Daffodils and Bluebells in a friend's garden.

Stained Glass window at St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.

Interesting angle at St. Michael's Mount.

We came over to St Michael's Mount by boat but this picture shows the causeway that is accessible at low tide. To demonstrate the nature of the tidal changes, we embarked from the rock to the left of the causeway which was not fully surrounded by water at the time. When it came time to leave we had to disembark at a small quay to the right of the causeway.

St Michael's Mount from a distance.

The Wonder of Art

What are the chances that you will visit a gallery in the morning on the first day of a new show and find the artist in attendance? Not unlikely but then again not too certain if the actual reception is set for that evening.
Then what are the chances, if it is your good fortune that the artist is in attendance, that you've only had eight hours sleep after being awake for the previous 32 hours? In my case that's exactly what happened on my first full day in London in early May.


The Gallery in question was Richmond Hill Gallery in Richmond, London. The artist was Philip Sutton RA, an artist I only discovered a few years ago but whose work I fell in love with for its expressiveness and exuberant colour.

Although I was coherent enough to recognise Mr Sutton that was as far as my speaking abilities went as I groped for the ability to ask and answer questions. Despite doing a fair impression of a half-wit, Mr Sutton was very gracious and talked to me for a while about the way he decided to paint compared with his contemporaries in the 1950's.

In a better frame of mind, I could have thought of many good questions to ask  but I also wouldn't have wanted to take up too much of his time. I loved seeing the paintings which were inspired by a trip to Crete.

As I was leaving I was invited to attend the evening's private view (which I was sadly unable to attend - although I feel that I had my own private viewing that morning) and one of the ladies manning the gallery very generously gave me a copy of the show's accompanying book and DVD. As tired as I was, I floated back down the street.

What a highlight and brilliant way to start my visit. For me it was a magical moment.

To photograph part of the book to illustrate this post I placed the book on my palette box and realised that the colours from the last painting I did before my trip were very close to those in the painting on the cover.

A Royal Celebration

I thought it fitting that my first post-Britain trip posting should be on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee otherwise known as the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne. The reason being is that it is the Jubilee weekend as I write.
Although I am not there in person to participate in the festivities this weekend, I was able to enjoy the decorations and see some events which took place previously.


Everywhere I went in England the shops were awash in red, white, and blue bunting and Union flags.

This display from the Yorkshire Soap Co in Hebden Bridge was one of my favourites as it was both witty and beautifully creative (they do the most wonderful soaps as well).

This is a sweet (candy) shop in Haworth.


Other funny, original window displays were found at Selfridges in London's Oxford Street.

This is of a Pearly King and Queen celebrating great British food with a meal.

An old three-wheel Reliant Robin car decked out in red, white, and blue.

Normally Corgi's (the Queen's favourite dog) aren't allowed to drive but this is a special occasion.

You have to be British or very familiar with its culture to understand the word play here.

British workmen love their cuppa as the rest of us Brits know well.

Bunting wasn't just confined to shop windows as this shot from Haworth in Yorkshire shows.


Even the Tube in London got into the Jubilee spirit.

Congratulations Ma'am on 60 years on the throne in service to your country. Long may you reign.

Back to Business

Some readers of this blog will have noticed that I have been very quiet of late. The reason is a month's visit to England to see family and friends. It was a lovely trip with mostly good weather overall. Once the sun came out on a regular basis, the week walking around with my coat done up tightly plus scarf and gloves on was soon forgotten.
In between visits I always sneak in some time looking at art in galleries and museums. This time I was lucky enough to meet an artist I admire. More of that and the other art aspects of my trip in future posts.