So.

Many apologies to anyone who sat down in front of the TV this afternoon at 4 pm expecting to see me and three other artists in the first episode of watercolour challenge on Channel 5.

All the trailers, advertising and publicity featured our escapades in Scarborough as the first episode in this revival of the much love TV series.

Unfortunately what actually went out on air was the first Devon episode, rather than the advertised Yorkshire one. As far as I know the five Yorkshire episodes will now transmit starting next week Monday the 24th: I expect confirmation of this from the production company sometime tomorrow and will update my Instagram and Facebook pages accordingly.

So sorry again for any disappointment or inconvenience caused by this last minute change to the broadcast schedule.

In other news, I have just uploaded a brand-new video to my YouTube channel: this is the first after quite a gap, but I will return to a more regular and frequent uploading of new videos.

If there’s anything specific you’d like me to cover in future videos, please leave a comment on YouTube or send me an email. Thank you

Forgive me for the quite shameless plug for my imminent appearance on the telly this afternoon( if you’re in the UK that is!) …after all, it’s not every day that an old bloke gets to be on one of the main TV channels is it?

I’ll be watching from behind a cushion……

I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in a revival of one of the best loved art shows on British TV – Watercolour Challenge, so in early May last year, I turned up at Castle Howard on a very bright sunny 6am, where I met my ‘partners – in- crime, and we embarked on the most fascinating weekend of pure watercolour painting ( no ink lines allowed….well out of my comfort zone!!!), filming, and lots of laughter….

I just had an email today to let me know that – finally – the finished series will be going out on Channel 5 in the UK from next Monday 17th January at 4pm, so set your video recorder of choice, or watch it on catch -up…

If you head on over to the workshops page on this very site, you will find a list(correct as of today’s date-1December) of all the workshops I’ve currently agreed: there are a couple of venues where dates are still to be agreed, so when these are confirmed, I’ll add these to the list, so please check back regularly …

After the lest eighteen months or so, it’s been just great to get in front of a live group of artists again -Zoom has been a lifesaver for many of us during the pandemic, but there really is nothing like the interaction in an in-person workshop or demo.

I’m really looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible next year: I’ve been developing new ideas and content for my workshops and am keen to share these with you.

Delighted to announce I managed to finally upload a new video to my channel just now…it took a while for the bots and algorithms at Youtube HQ to decide it was OK to unleash it on the viewing public, so here it is.

While I have your attention, I will be ready to publish a workshops list for next year, by the 1st December: I’m just waiting for two dates to be confirmed and it’ll be good to go……now that in person, live demos and workshops seem to be happening again, I’ve had lots of requests for dates so that folk can book: I’ll include full details of how and where/who to contact for each venue, and very timely, several will offer gift vouchers which would be ideal Christmas gifts ( as will my 2022 calendars, still available from my Etsy shop…just thought I would mention in passing).

I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation recently, and was horrified to realise just how many non-recyclable cellphone bags I’d used since I started selling my cards, so I decided there and then not to use them any longer. I’ve just had a new range of cards printed, and after much research and testing, have decided to ship all my cards from now on with a removable, small tab label instead of a nasty cello bag.I’ll also explore alternative, recycled paper stocks when I print my next sketchbook.

My new cards( and the clever little labels I designed) have just been listed on my Etsy shop, so take a look- they’re all blank inside, and some might just work as a Christmas card?

You can find them here: this listing is for the bargain multi pack option, but the designs are all listed as single cards, too.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1099094932/multi-pack-of-new-cards?ref=listing_published_alert