The studio

Paint, slowly, until the light is right

I paint in oils from a north-facing room above an old bakery, mostly at the hour when the light stops changing. The work begins outdoors — small boards, an hour at a time — and finishes at the easel over weeks, in thin layers that keep something of the weather in them.

Trained at the Slade and later at the Florence Academy, I keep to a limited palette: lead white, yellow ochre, terre verte, ivory black, and whatever red the season asks for. Subjects arrive plainly — a coastline, a kitchen table, a face I know well — and I stay with them until they stop being subjects.

Paintings live in private collections across Europe and the United States. Studio visits are welcome by appointment, and I answer every letter, eventually.

Portrait of the artist in the studio