Red dahlias

Anish Kapoor and Serpentine Pavilion

Some pictures from a curator-led preview of the Anish Kapoor sculptures in Kensington Gardens, one misty October morning. After the preview we had coffee at the beautiful Serpentine Pavilion designed by Jean Nouvel.

Deauville plage

Paris cafe scenes

Lazy afternoons in Paris 3eme

Pompidou sketch

View from a place in the shade of the Pompidou Centre, looking towards church and buildings on other side of the square, July 2010

Paris drawing, sunset, July; Life painting, Kensington, June

The bird flu dance is all the rage in Paris

Click here to read my piece on contemporary African dance in Paris, published in The Independent last Friday. I was in Paris from 4 - 12 July to do a course led by dancer Maïmouna. I also did lots of sketching and will post some works up here soon.

Image: Maïmouna Coulibaly

Roma - maggio 2010

Customers at salami stall, Piazza Bologna, one hot, dry Sunday

Lazy Saturday, Piazza Farnese

cafe and tango

Agnès Varda

Just returned from seeing French filmmaker Agnès Varda present and talk about some of her films at the BFI. Feel inspired. Will write more soon...

[picture: Jane Birkin and Agnès Varda. One of the films screened tonight was Varda's 1988 ciné-portrait Jane B par Agnès V, which I first saw 4 years ago on video at the Cinémathèque in Paris. It was a treat to revisit it on the big screen.]

Como pictures

Some watercolours and drawings from my time by Lake Como in mid-April.

Springtime

February

Tribute to Eric Rohmer

The celebrated French film-maker Eric Rohmer died last month, aged 89. Here is a piece I wrote on my encounter with him 4 years ago, published in The Independent.

image: poster for Rohmer's film Pauline à la Plage (1983)

London buses, restaurant kitchen, Peak district in the cold, Amsterdam cafe in the sun

I have neglected my blog recently, so here are a few sketches from the past few months to get me started again. More posts to come...


Sketches from the immaculate kitchens of a large, elegant city restaurant, drawn on two different Wednesday nights last Oct/Nov.



Holborn on a busy autumn night



Drawings from a new year's holiday in the snowy Peak District, 09-10

Sunny Amsterdam cafe scene - painted last summer during a wonderful short break visiting my friend Milenna.