Autumn 2026

Well, that summer went quickly!

And what a summer it was. Amazing days of clear blue skies, warm air and sunshine — the sort of summer that reminded me of the days when we seemed to have one every year!

For an outdoor painter, though, there can be a downside to all that sunshine. On some days it was simply too hot and far too bright to get outside with the easel.

Light and shadow are such an important part of my painting, and sometimes a shadowless, intensely bright scene can actually be more difficult to paint. Having said that, I do enjoy the challenge of working with those deep blue skies against the warmer colours of a beach or the darker foliage of a landscape. There will certainly be a few paintings from this summer where that contrast plays an important part.

The important thing is finding the balance — capturing the brightness and warmth without losing the atmosphere that makes a painting interesting.

A Swallow stoops for a drink.

'A Secret Place on Exmoor'

A busy few months

It has been a particularly rewarding few months in the studio, with a number of paintings finding new homes and the wonderful opportunity to showcase my work at Coulscott House and The Lost Manor.

Being able to see the paintings hanging in these beautiful properties has been a real pleasure, and I've written more about both the paintings and the properties in my recent blog.

Alongside all of this, I was also fortunate enough to receive a very special commission — a portrait of a pair of beautiful cats.

This proved to be great fun, but also quite a challenge.

Beautiful Dartmoor......

Painting two very individual characters

It may seem obvious, but fur can be surprisingly difficult to paint.

In this commission, I had not only the fur of the cats themselves to consider, but also the soft fur-covered plinth beneath Miss Winter, the lighter of the two, and the fluffy rug on which Sir Phoenix, the darker Bengal, sits in rather grumpy repose!

I don't aim for hyper-realism in my paintings. I want the subject to look convincingly like what it is, but I also want to leave something for the viewer's eye to discover.

With this painting, that meant concentrating very carefully on values rather than attempting to paint every individual hair. Directional brushstrokes suggest the softness and shape of the cats' fur, while allowing the brushwork itself to remain visible.

In places, colours are simply laid alongside their neighbouring values without blending them together. Up close, you can see the individual marks and passages of paint. Step back around six to ten feet, however, and those separate marks begin to come together and the image becomes the cats.

That's generally how I like my paintings to be viewed.

There was one question I kept asking myself throughout the whole process:

Is this your cat?

The initial sketch in lilac oils

Background and 'darks' go in....

The reference photograph

Not is this a cat? — but is this your cat?

That question really focuses the eye.

Suddenly, tiny details become important: the slight thickness of the dark rim around an eye, the particular shape of a mouth, the alignment of the head, or a small irregularity in the pattern of the fur.

None of these things on their own might seem particularly important, but together they make the difference between painting a cat and painting your cat.

Thankfully, when I opened the box and saw the recipient's face as she first saw the finished painting, I knew I'd got it right.

That moment is one of the great privileges of painting commissions. You simply can't beat seeing someone's immediate reaction to a painting that has been created especially for them.

A nervous artist handing over the finished work.......

All finished and ready for their owner......

Where the paintings are taking me.......

Looking ahead, the work I've been producing this year has begun to move towards a stronger sense of theme.

The moors, in particular, have really captured my imagination.

I've been exploring Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and my own local Exmoor, looking for views and moments that offer something beyond simply being a beautiful landscape. At some point, I suspect I'll have to make the journey up to the North Yorkshire Moors as well, but for now the landscapes of the South West have more than enough to keep me occupied!

There is something about these places that lends itself to storytelling.

So many writers have used the moors as settings for their stories, and I've found myself thinking about some of those great books while exploring the landscapes myself.

I'm particularly interested in how a landscape can make us feel.

A vast sky can create a sense of awe and freedom, but it can also make us feel very small. A lonely track disappearing into the distance might suggest adventure, isolation or even the feeling of being lost.

These are the emotions I'm increasingly trying to explore in the larger paintings I'm working on now.

Many of these canvases are around a metre wide, sometimes larger, and that scale gives me the opportunity to let the landscape breathe. I'm hoping that the paintings will offer more than simply a view of a particular place — that they might evoke something in the person standing in front of them.

The inspiration for the sky in my latest Dartmoor painting. This shot taken right outside the front door at home.

On the easel in the studio. This one is one metre by one metre in size with a square format.......

An unusual choice for me, but I thought the square format would offer a challenge in creating the dominance of the sky I am looking for.

Figuring out the square format...

Very big, scary, blank canvas.......

And now, towards Christmas...

With Christmas beginning to come into view, the studio is once again becoming a particularly busy place.

There are new paintings taking shape, existing works finding their way towards new homes, and plenty of ideas waiting to be explored over the coming months.

If you've been following my work for a while, thank you. Every painting that finds a new home, every message about a painting, and every person who takes the time to look at what I'm doing makes a real difference to an independent artist.

I'll also be sharing some of the new work and paintings in progress over on my Facebook page, so if you'd like to follow along, I'd be delighted to have you there.

And, of course, if you're looking for something a little different this Christmas, there are original paintings available on the website. An original painting isn't just something to put on a wall — it's a piece of someone's creative journey, and hopefully something that will continue to give pleasure for many years to come.

For now, though, it's back to the studio.

There's plenty still to paint.

Take care, and speak soon,

Chris

Other work underway.......

Ponies on Exmoor

From Instow

The beginnings of a new painting....