California Dreamin’ in colour

California Dreamin’ in colour

Despite the sun it was a little chilly still (it was only the end of May after all) so I had the door to the studio closed. I was enjoying myself drawing away with Rodrigo’s ‘Concerto d’Aranjuez’ playing, when I heard this intemperate squawking. There on the post...
Fools Gold?

Fools Gold?

They can see that he’s just a fool As he never gives an answer But the fool on the hill Sees the sun going down And the eyes in his head See the world spinning around” There is a large chunk of me in this Beatles song. As a service brat I was always moving,...
Pencils and Paintboxes

Pencils and Paintboxes

As a child I was brought up in Cyprus. In retrospect this profoundly influenced my sense of colour. The colours of the Mediterranean are bleached out by the sun, dominated by Naples Yellow, Terracotta and the almost Cerulean blue of the Mediterranean sky. When the...
West Coast Harmonies

West Coast Harmonies

I never really thought of the Beach Boys as anything more than happy harmonics. West Coast surfer sound lacking the depth, emotional and musical, of the Beatles. They reflected the US West Coast in all its frothy entertainment world frivolity. Looking back maybe the...
Diamonds not wardrobes

Diamonds not wardrobes

I thought “Bugger Narnia”. It may have been that for an English child in the early 20th century the darkness of grandma’s wardrobe, the smell of camphor and cedar wood were the harbingers of mystery and adventure. In a miserable damp English autumn...