This acrylic painting is of the River Yeo at Rolle’s Quay in Barnstaple, acrylic on panel 770 x 400mm. I’ve attempted to capture that storm ridden summer sky and the murky tidal water. At the end of this painting I made a hideous schoolboy error when varnishing the painting. When I had a final look I noticed that the titanium white on the roof hadn’t quite dried and had bled right into the whole painting!!! All the blacks were now grey and muddy, reluctantly I reworked the contrast of the painting and subsequently saved it from either the bin or a repriming with gesso. What a mistake a to make!
Well update from the previous paragraph. After revarnishing the painting I was again unhappy with the overall uniform darkness of the painting. After a few adjustments I lifted the panel off the easel, and in anger deeply scored it with a Stanley knife and snapped it in half. This is now in the bin where it should have been in the first place. When you purchase paintings from artist just remember sometimes we spend hours of wrestling with paintings only to fail at the final post, it is these that you never really see. Al

Paint stained nails
That I can never seem to clean
Grips a can and a match
If you know what I mean
To ignite that wasted effort
Nothings been so hard
Now to burn a lifetime’s failings
In the seclusion of my back yard