I found a large sheet of Two Rivers heavy watercolour paper and did this. I'm not sure I like this paper but it's always a challenge and is good for leaving and coming back to as it's easy to scrub the surface and wash off colour. I probably overworked this but here it is anyway.

I'm working with Red Hot Press in offering this exciting and unusual course here in Southampton next month - for more information go to: http://www.redhotpress.org.uk/courses/single-technique/sketch-books.php

Thanks to Louise Steel for writing this piece on yours truly: http://www.ichapel.co.uk/ - not sure I can live up to the acclaim though!

...and another experiment in light and shade. Again done from a photo taken on my ipad but I limited my time to under 3 hours. It started off as a blend of Cerulean Blue, Alizaren Crimson, Antwerp Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Paynes Grey. All applied wet on wet and allowed to dry after about an hour and then worked over with washes and dry brush. It's not architecture, which I love but allowed me a sense of freedom and experiment (I even sprinkled salt while it was wet!). Nevertheless a nice break after a week of commercial illustration. Hope you like it!

Just did this one after arriving at the chapel. Not from life (too cold!) but from a few photos I took on my ipad on the way in. It started off quite bright and then became quite misty and murky which seemed an attractive proposition for a quick watercolour: just wanted to splash paint on paper really - hope you like it! Done in around 3 to 4 hours on Saunders Waterford 140lb NOT at approx 280 x 380 mm.

I hadn't looked at this work since posting it on Saturday but after showing the original to an illustrator colleague today I just felt it needed a few tweaks. I don't normally work on a piece after its "completion" but I've played around with it a little - you probably won't notice (or even care) - anyway here it is again!

I love the way the tower of Netley Hospital chapel pokes up above the trees and can be seen from all aspects. I took the photo for this watercolour sketch last year and I have a feeling it was from the IOW ferry (?). The sailing boat to the left balances the composition quite well. Done in around 4 hours in the studio on 200lb Two Rivers paper.

Tim Craven shows his extraordinary skills in this joint show with Celia de Serra at the Art Stable gallery near Blandford Dorset. Tim's "day-job" is curator at the Southampton City Art Gallery but he intends to spend more time making his art in future and well worth it. Tim's love is the countryside and in particular trees and he portrays these with a most unique method of using watercolour. The initial painting is carried our using meticulous fine brush application in black and white and any colour and/or tone is added later using an airbrush. Beatiful work when viewed close-up and standing back. Worth the lovely drive to the little village of Child Okeford. On until 28 March.

This view of Fawley Refinery was taken from Weston Shore early springtime last year. It's on a heavy hand-made watercolour paper by Two Rivers. I am getting used to this surface now and plan to aquire some larger sheets - this one is 260mm x 360mm and took around 5 hours.

This is really just an experiment using a hand-made paper that I've not used before. It's a very white paper made by Two Rivers and is a NOT surface of around 140lb. The surface is less absorbent than I'm used to and the paint tended to sit on the surface and even when dry could be easily disturbed. This was both useful and difficult but once I got used to it enabled me to wipe-out and lift-off colour with ease. The view was taken from a photograph I took from within the port a few months ago. It's quite a small picture at 240 x 280mm.

The photograph I used for this view was taken early one morning last springtime and shows the power station at Fawley from Hamble. I used a 300mm lense which tends to flatten the perspective giving a more interesting composition. The image reminded me of Whistler's nocturne paintings in particular his Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Battersea Bridge (c. 1872/75) and this was a major influence for this watercolour. I limited my palette to alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, yellow ochre and neutral tint with opaque white highlights.

This view is looking up river from Mayflower Park towards the Mayflower Cruise Terminal. The river is really calm with just a few ripples to break up the surface. The large crane is the Canute floating crane built in the 1960s and has the capacity of 200 ton! Just under A3 size done from my photographs on Saunders Waterford 140Ib in around 5 hours.

A picturesque view: a snapshot of my studio in the Old Cemetery

Here's something different - a view of the Southampton incinerator from across the river. The metal dome shape can be easily spotted from all points of the city. Due to its reflective material it changes colour throughout the day and time of year. The photograph I worked from was taken on a hazy morning in early spring last year and I tried to give the structure an air of mystery by enhancing the lighting effects on the roof.

I'm due to give two talks on my work at the following times and venues:

Friday 9 November at Cobbett Road Library Southampton who are also hosting an exhibition of selected watercolours which runs from November 5 to December 1.

Wednesday 12 December at Southampton Solent University for FoSMAG (Friends of Southampton Museums, Archives and Galleries)

As a result I managed to make the front cover of the FoSMAG Newsletter this month with a dps inside.

The Daily Echo have published a feature on my work in today's TV & Leisure magazine - here's a scan:

Here's the last watercolour view showing Southampton Docks. This one portrays the four ferries: the ro ro car transporter, the IOW car ferry, the Red Jet and the Hythe ferry. The view is from Hythe pier and put together from several photos to assemble all the ferries together at one time. It took several visits to achieve this but worth it in the end.

This one probably took the longest at around 20 hours due to the detail but I think the subject matter is worth the time taken. I feel that I know these structures intimately now and worthy of further studies.

I limited my palette to just 5 colours for this piece and concentrated on the tonal values in order to create the atmosphere.

Here are details of my finished watercolours which give an indication of my brush stroke technique. I tend to work wet-into-wet using warm and cool colour until there's no more benefit in moving the pigment around and I'll leave to dry. I'll then add detail and finish with some dry-brush. I use a large squirrel hair brush for sky and sea washes and sable brushes nos 4, 6 and 8 for the rest. I buy my brushes from Rosemary & Co.

No you're not seeing double - here are my two watercolours of the Southampton docks view as seen from the Town Quay. The final watercolour is the largest I've done at 430 x 570 mm and so much easier to paint - I plan on doing everything larger in future! For this I stretched a sheet of Waterford 140Ib NOT paper which provided a drum-tight surface. Even when soaked the paper remains flat and a joy to work on. Although the smaller one was done to gain approval from the client it also helped to establish the composition and colour palette - a useful exercise.