I've heard it said that artists are never completely happy with the final result of their efforts, and I think it must be true in my case at least. I find when I've "finished" a painting there's always something that I think could have been done a little better. But I also know that you can "fix" something worse than it was before, so you have to stop somewhere.

As of this week I'll be working as a fire engineer for 2 to 3 days a week. This will cut into the painting time, but will bring in some much needed cash!

I've finished another acrylic painting, see below. It is of the west coast just north of Raglan.

I'm very pleased to report that the two paintings I submitted for the Peters Doig Marlborough art awards have been selected for the competition. The two paintings are "The Eyes Have It" and "Napier Headland", both of which can be seen on the Pastel page.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 19th May from 6 to 8 pm, and runs to 17th June, at the Yealands Estate Marlborough Gallery, 204 High St, Blenheim.

Last week I went to see the "Degas to Dali" exhibition of works from the National Galleries of Scotland. It's interesting to see paintings by the so-called "Masters", and I guess at the time they were done they were fairly radical and daring. But to be honest I found it to be fairly unexciting.