Stuck in traffic circling London, art materials safely packed out of sight, darkness falling and the dawning realisation we will not be catching our reserved place on the cross Channel shuttle. So I have to play at drawing with a slow shutter photo app which has infinite possibilities and naturally very little chance of failure because car lights on slow shutter speeds are always going to work. I probably could have done these blind. But then I became fascinated by the possib

Some days it’s impossible to resist the lure of digital play. Particularly when you are travelling up and down the country in a train with an empty biro, fading laundry marker but plenty of access to electrical sockets and power and thus in no danger of running out of charge. I was seized by the idea of virtual graffitti and messing with virtual duck tape. Or duct tape. However you say it. I’ve done a few pieces with deliberate real graffitti. It’s interesting to observe the

The under layers of a new work. I like documenting work in progress. It’s all part of the digital revolution. A hundred photos taken every day of anything from a stain on concrete to an interesting fold in a bag. So why not photograph every mark in a painting? I think I do it because I live the raw look of the intuitive free early stages where anything can be done because no real time has been invested and you can paint over anything. Of course, you can do thus at any stage a

Discovered a new painting tool today in the course of laying down a ground for a new painting. A Crown Matchpot tube applicator on unprimed heavy fairly rough paper works a treat. The paper practically sucked the paint out of the tube and consequently left some great marks on the paper. Sadly it’s not the effect I was looking for in terms of this piece, but I will use these tubes again for drawing, I think. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

Slightly larger than thumbnail sketches, I’ve resurrected the deserted pubs theme. Playing around with the colored backgrounds I prepared weeks ago. Messing at this scale is very different to working at the scale I have in mind. There could be a fair bit of glorious failure in store… #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

More basic observational stuff. I’m on a once-a-week commute to London at the moment. Lots of train time for surreptitious drawing of fellow passengers. It’s interesting how much moving someone does even when supposedly asleep. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

Back to basics. Basic observational drawing. Himself has been having boxing lessons for a while now and I kept saying I would quite like to go and observe. The boxing coach was really quite excited at the idea of me sitting and drawing. He thinks I would enjoy the authentic aesthetics of a traditional spit n’ sawdust boxing gym. He may be right. I will have to go and look sometime. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

It’s always worth holding on to old work you sort of feel something for even though it didn’t quite work at the time. After a couple of years propped up with its face against a studio wall, inspiration may strike when it’s turned around and looked at afresh. As is the case with today’s image. I’m currently sorting through a mass of work because I’ve just been invited to join the emerging artists’ programme at Debut Contemporary in London. So I’m taking the opportunity to loo

Messing with pen and ink is always fun. Inevitably this means calligraphy is fun, except when it’s not. Calligraphy has particular challenges for a visual artist used to playing and messing and failing. Real calligraphers are concerned with proportion and accuracy and devote years of practice to the art. Dipping into Arabic lettering for just a few hours was therefore never going to be a huge success from the strict perspective if a professional calligrapher, but it was an en

Hahahahaha. Hard to take any of this seriously. Liquorice Allsorts spring to mind. And before anyone else says anything, what’s with the odd phallus shape bang in the middle? In case anyone is in doubt, this is the one which went from bad to worse and worse the other day when my phone battery died on me. But the interesting thing, as always, is that even in the midst of abject failure, there are passages within the work that I quite like. Hence the detail shots. #creativity #

Taking risks with things I’ve made is one thing but taking risks with someone else’s is something else. I’m currently running a community sewing project. One of my self imposed rules is that anything and everything produced by members of the community can be incorporated into the final pieces. Experience of running this sort of project over the years has shown me that this is an entirely reasonable objective as long as I have latitude to re-colour or over-embroider if necessa

I spent three hours making a bad painting worse this afternoon. It would have made a wonderful dailyfail except my phone seemed to be using up charge at a cracking rate all morning. I was consequently unable to photograph the disaster. Maybe I will photograph it tomorrow. It is worthy of inclusion although it’s so bad it’s almost impossible to see what I’ve learned from it. So instead a quick sketch meant to show a small group of embroiderers how I envisage a certain curtain

More crayon and combining all that I dislike in a cute pet subject in pastel colors. Things are quite distracted at present. All the more important to just tackle anything which enters my mind. No judging or assessing: just doing. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

Caran d’ache crayons lurking in the bottom of my bag and a new sketchbook/journal with really nice paper that looks as though it will take water well so in nice illogical fashion, instead of playing with water-based media I opt to use the wax crayons. There were only eight in the box. But interestingly, a fuscia, a cyan-type blue and a good orangey Indian yellow were all included. I have liked this primary colour combination for some years, ever since a tutor told me they wer

An almond tree just down the road which over the years I have drawn, photographed and painted. There’s something about the colours of the pinks and deep maroons and olive greens of the old wall and surrounding brick and stonework. Using the new app, I’ve translated more photos into colour notes for future reference. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

I began with a collection of photos I had been taking of pleasing colour combinations. I was planning to make colour notes from the images and then suddenly remembered about the Adobe Ideas app. A few minutes later, I had my colour notes automatically extracted and collated. Then all I had to do was mix a bit of paint and fill in a few rectangles prepared on a sheet of paper so long ago that the masking tape was ineffectually brittle. Great fun. #creativity #Failure #Postaday

What I’m most enjoying about the whole #dailyfail exercise is the complete freedom from having to justify time, concept, context, skill, or a thing else that impedes just getting on with something. It simply doesn’t matter what the outcome is because the basic outcome is the end-in-itself. Today I pulled out of a pile of old drawings a piece of messing I did about 18 months ago playing a game of marking and obliterating, black, white, black and so on. I thought it would be in

More breaking of self imposed “rules” on a series of daily challenges resolutely NOT using digital technology but then again the whole point of the exercise is the breaking of rules. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk

I’ve been varnishing furniture in an obsessive-compulsive fashion today, having just refurbished a bedroom with predominantly dark oak furniture. The few bits of pale pine offended my sensibilities. With a few dregs of varnish left in the tin, I thought it might be interesting to brush over some (unfixed) charcoal sketches. Interesting is the right word. The charcoal naturally dissolved and smudged in a very satisfying #dailyfail sort of way and I think there are possibilitie

Sitting in a cafe, looking out on a grey rainy day, I noticed with interest the dull greyness was punctuated by red-orange at every point. Table napkins, awning, car, balconies. Street lamp, lady’s hair and scarf, traffic sign. How very curious. #creativity #Failure #Postaday #risk