Hello!

This is the first blog of my new website.  After 33 years behind a desk I can`t tell you how happy I am finally to devote my time to the spirit of creativity that has been ever-present all my life but is only now emerging, blinking into the sunlight. There are so many ideas I have for new series of paintings and I can`t wait to crank up the volume. I am new to this blogging lark but in the spirit of keeping the content relevant and interactive, I am going to give you some options for blog content and ask you vote on them. The subject with the most support will form my next blog. In the absence of any response (entirely possible) I will just go with whatever is currently piquing my curiosity. So here goes:

1. Oils v. acrylics
2. My methods of painting
3. Inspirational artists (one each blog, to include Richard Estes, Velasquez, Norman Rockwell, Monet, Manet, Antonio Lopez, John Singer Sargent, Chuck Close, Caravaggio, Jack Vettriano, Gustave Caillebotte, to name but a few)
4. What is good about Pinterest and why my Pinterest site is full of pictures of people staring at art
5. In search of a studio
6. Favourite artists supply shops
7. Art galleries of the world (ones that I`ve been to and love, that is) to include Musee D`Orsay, The National Gallery, The Tate Liverpool, The Prado, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc (you get the picture).

Use the feedback form to tell me which of the above interests you. Arigato! In the meantime, here is a painting that transfixes me every time I find myself in front of it (and no, it is not photorealistic):
Claude Monet, "Bain a La Grenouillère", 1869, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York