This autumn at The Bootlegger
This latest Speakeasy is charmingly themed against the backdrop of the American 1920’s Prohibition era. A cosy interior and a playful cocktail menu, the Bootlegger is the perfect place to...
Bottoms-up at the Bootlegger!
The latest Speakeasy to grace the Capital is neatly tucked away in EC3’s buzzing Leadenhall market – this 1920’s style bar is impressively themed against the backdrop of the...
Get Retro with Old Street Records!
Welcome to Shoreditch’s trendy new hang out – Old Street Records is sure to kick off your weekend vibes. With live music, mouth-watering pizza and a funky cocktail offering,...
Hybrid Contemporary Dance event
Last year, Francesca Tranter, Assistant Lecturer / Dance Practitioner at the University of Malta School of Performing Arts and also the Artistic Director and Choreographer at Contact Dance company asked if...
Jazz Paintings
Every year I set my easel up at various events and try to capture the atmosphere, the sound, colour and movement around me. I have painted dancers and actors,...
Drawing to a Close
When is a picture finished? This is a common question from students, but it doesn’t have a simple answer. My flippant reply is ‘about ten minutes...
Drawing with Help
For many years, it was traditional to study under a ‘master’ artist to learn techniques and basic knowledge. An apprentice would study for years, helping to mix paint and...
Drawing on Your Own
There’s only one you, only one me. You can’t really copy me, and I can’t copy you – together we can move forward by inspiring and supporting each other,...
Drawing the Line
I believe that art, or at least mark-making, is an innate form of human communication. We have been doing it before we even started to speak. I mean that...
Mumbai Memoir 48- Coldplay ‘shooting across Mumbai’!
The rock band Coldplay, is the talk of the town since the time they released their song ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ here in India. Here’s the song’s...
Drawing for Yourself
Many people are so hooked on the outcome of their drawings that they seem to stop themselves enjoying the actual practice of it. In normal ‘left-brained’ life this...
Drawing Nothing!
I really love teaching drawing, as it involves helping people to see and connect to the world around them in a completely new and experiential, almost magical, way. I can...
Drawing After
Creativity is best learned by inspiration. By copying drawings we admire, working in the style of someone else, we learn how it feels to move our hands and make...
Jeni on Drawing 3 Drawing on Past Experience
More years ago than I care to count, when I was doing an art foundation course at Hull Art College, I fell in love with life drawing....
Learning to Draw
If all children are born able to draw, sing and dance, to express themselves and their emotions, what happens to stunt all that? Why do we lose confidence in...
More About Drawing
One of the things that makes humans unique is our self awareness. We are all born with an urge to express ourselves by singing, dancing and showing our emotions....
10 Steps to Painting at a Jazz Festival
This year the Malta Jazz Festival celebrated its 25th edition. The standard of music was outstanding on each of the four nights and I was lucky enough...
Drawing Skills
There is nothing wrong with doodling in a cartoony way, or using symbolic figures to represent reality, but being able to draw things so that they look and feel...
Drawing Matters
“An amateur gives people what they want; a professional gives them what they need.” I can’t remember where I heard that quote, but it guides me when I think...
Beginning to Draw
Humans are born with an urge to make marks, to sing, dance and generally express themselves. If you ask any small child if they can draw or paint they...
Simply Drawing
I really believe that accurate drawing is a skill that can be learnt relatively easily, and also that it has many benefits beyond its superficial pleasure. With practice and...
Drawing Emotions Out
Humans respond to the world around them through their emotions. We feel these emotions in our bodies and they are physical things, not simply imagined scenarios that run through...
Drawing is…. Mindless!
I am very interested in the left and right brain theory about the opposing effects of logic and creativity. It helps to explain many of the problems...
International Jazz Day
Last Thursday, 30th April, was International Jazz day. Jazz is such an interesting genre of music – it’s a love/hate thing. I know that I really didn’t appreciate it...
Drawing as Meditation
I am really keen on the idea of ‘art’ being a tool for self expression and for connecting our inner and outer worlds in deep and personal ways....
34. Drawing with Help
For many years, it was traditional to study under a ‘master’ artist to learn techniques and basic knowledge. An apprentice would study for years, helping to mix paint and...
33. Drawing on Your Own
There’s only one you, only one me. You can’t really copy me, and I can’t copy you – together we can move forward by inspiring and supporting each other,...
My Christmas List
Besides writing my own Christmas wish list I thought I’d help a little with yours! I paint my ‘Little People’ on the beach near me, Golden Bay. I...
Drawing and Painting Fifty Shades of Grey Nudes
Underpinning all the ‘action’ paintings and sketches that I love to do so much is a life-long fascination with people. I always carry a sketch book with me, and...
Commenting on Comments
The feedback and comments from my last article have been really interesting and helpful. Most of all it’s been good to know that people are actually reading my...
29. Drawing Conclusions….. I wonder, can you help me?
People quite often tell me how much they enjoy my posts, so I know that they are being read, even though I rarely get any online comments. I wonder...
Malta Diary 1. The Straight and Narrow Strait Street in Valetta
Ask any British servicemen – mostly Royal Navy and Army, stationed or passing through – about Malta up to the early 1970s and with an animated twinkle in their...