Trust the process
I used to call it making a mess. Or fucking it up. My work suffers when I become tentative with...
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Little Boy Blue
I spent far too long trying to work out what this painting needed. More colour. Less colour. Another mark. Remove...
The Reward of Never Becoming Anything
Oscar Wilde once wrote: "If you want to be a grocer or a general or a politician or a judge,...
If You’re Lucky, Even You Leave
I posted a Philip Guston quote recently and I’m not sure everyone got from it what I did. The line...
If You Don’t Give Up, You Just Might Make It
If you don’t give up, you just might make it. If you do, you almost never will. There are no...
How Can Something Be So Bad and Yet So Good?
One person sees genius. Another sees rubbish. They're looking at the same thing. For years that made no sense to...
Does Art Imitate Life?
People often say that art imitates life. I'm beginning to wonder if the opposite is true. Maybe life imitates art....
A Little Yellow Love Heart
This morning, while walking through the back streets of Richmond on my way to the studio, I noticed a tiny...
Five Hundred Times
Apparently Picasso once said you’re not a fully realised artist until you've painted 500 paintings. Whether he actually said it...
Fake Challenges
I recently heard Fran Lebowitz say: "Climbing a mountain is a fake challenge. You don't have to climb a mountain....
Surprise Me
I don't want art to tell me what I already know. I don't want to hear that your eyes are...
It’s Not Art Unless It Could Become a Disaster
There’s a point in almost every painting where I think I’ve fucked it. Not dramatically. No throwing brushes. No tortured...
You Will Be Forgotten Either Way
Marcus Aurelius wrote: "You will be forgotten either way. So live in such a manner that, while you remain, you...
Fifty Songs. One Unexpected Destination.
People often ask how I went from being a musician to becoming a painter. I didn't. I simply kept following...
Why Do So Many Of Us Live Our Lives As Though We're Immortal?
I sometimes wonder why so many of us live as though we have all the time in the world. Not...
The Work That Makes Life Worth Living
I've become increasingly suspicious of the idea that the purpose of life is simply to make enough money to survive....
Decide Less. Create More.
For years, I thought variety was the hallmark of a rich life. Different meals.Different wines.Different routines and experiences. It seemed...
There Are No Wrong Lines
One of the hardest lessons to learn as an artist is that the mark you just made is not the...
The Courage to Paint Without a Formula
There are easier ways to make art. You can repeat what sold last time. You can borrow a style that...
Produce + Personality = Brand
Most artists still think the work is the brand. It isn’t. The work is just the entry point. What people...
Change is Annoying but Certainty is Absurd.
We hate change. It interrupts things. Forces us to adjust.Makes yesterday’s decisions feel unstable. It’s inconvenient. So we resist it....
Just Show Up
There’s a quote from Woody Allen: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” It’s the kind of line people nod...
If It Doesn’t Offend Someone, It’s Probably Not Art
There’s that Monty Python’s Life of Brian scene.The crowd listening to the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the meek…”“What...