A little late night doodle as it gets chilly here in Hampshire, England. The maritime climate provides a mild temperature range year-round, but the landscape is idyllic when the temperature dips low to 0’C and the winter light lands on the heavy morning frost.

The role of art in society is to remain open. —Professor Jennifer Roberts, Harvard University, discussing slow looking at art on BBC Front Row podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

I’m delighted to have been invited to contribute to The August Drift & Dribble Literary Society! @driftanddribble.bsky.social is reader's compendium of wit, observation and literary amusements. www.augustdriftanddribble.com/szuplatsketc...

Words from Charles Hawthorne provide some comfort as I happily dive back into figure/life drawing this week after several weeks away. “Clumsiness indicates a struggle to put things down right, an honest effort to grasp the truth.”

Shared a coffee break at the fabulous Vintage Paper Co. in Stromness last week with the wisdom of Charles Hawthorne and a local companion. #CapeCodSchoolofArt #HawthorneonPainting

For those who still enjoy a thoughtful read where family (Boston/Cape Cod you’re my home), cameras (Leica, Olympus, & Nikon), photography, & the moments in life that add up to our existence all intertwine- I offer this essay in words and photos by @benshotme.bsky.social benshotme.com/selected-alb...

“Painting is just getting one spot of color in relation to another spot of color— after you have covered acres of canvas you will know.” Charles Hawthorne, Cape Cod School of Art, Hawthorne on Painting

Time away from some cares of the world, reprioritising time with family, friends, and myself, and a change of scenery is worthwhile in itself but also reminds me how these things are crucial for feeding our inspiration. Stromness morning, Caran d’ache Neocolor II wax pastels, Montmartre sketchbook

“To erase from museums, this nation’s public memory, what happened to Emmett would be another white supremacist atrocity done to his brutally abbreviated life.”

“As Dow advised… select the best of your compositions and correct them. Architects use tracing paper… Japanese artists trace again and again until satisfied.” from Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer

I’ve been working on this self-portrait for about 3 yrs. and this week am refinding direction. Today, I’m seeing, my aunt, my cousin, and my grandmother staring back at me. 🇺🇦 #workinprogress ~118 cm x 133 cm, oil on Arches oil paper & Blackwing Palomino pencil on tracing paper

When I’ve gone too far in the wrong direction, I’ll make some breakout sketches on the side to remedy and simplify proportions, line, or volume of the head, limbs, or extremeties. Sunday with Winchester Life Drawing Club at the Arc.

Lovely life session last night at God’s House Tower. Thanks to Lucie Smith & ZING for organising, Stewart Beckett, AROI for timekeeping, and Julien Frost for modelling!

The balconies of the council flats in my neighbourhood appear to me like miniature stages or dioramas. I made these small oil studies last year from pencil sketches made on location, which I hope imbues them with a bit of atmospheric presence and reduces the imagery to the most crucial elements.

Friends, I’m making a personal appeal for the first time on Bluesky. If you are in a position to, will you help my dear cousin Brianna fight brain cancer? www.gofundme.com/f/help-brian...

Great to be back after a few weeks away from life drawing! Thanks to Winchester Life Drawing Club at the Arc. A couple of sketches from the short poses—5, 5, and 2 minutes oil pastel on paper

The exhibition derives its title ("On Nonconformity") from Shahn's own writing, & this passage at the beginning of the show should be required reading today: "The degree of nonconformity present—and tolerated—in a society might be looked upon as a symptom of its state of health."

We want to set up an environment where the decision making occurs free of the misguiding force of persuasion. -Rick Rubin

The reports coming out of ICE field offices are deeply concerning. So is the fact that ICE is trying to keep those horrific conditions hidden from the American people. We’re sounding the alarm. ICE’s abuse of power has to end.

Events for Inside the Artist’s Studio: 20 Years of the Arches are being announced! Learn to paint landscapes on the rooftop of the GHT Tower with Stewart Beckett AROI (Associate of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters), Saturday, July 12 · 1:30 - 4pm www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-r...

Excited to be part of this exhibition— a glimpse into the artist’s studio and a celebration of 20 years of Arches Studios! godshousetower.org.uk/eventer/insi...

I take back my premature congrats as those in power at the museum have joined those shamefully capitulating to the President’s ignorant abuse of power and efforts to spread his white supremacist ideology. www.artnews.com/art-news/new...

It’s popular (& not inaccurate) rn to compare current attitudes & actions in the US to that of the Nazis but you don’t have to go abroad for idealogical parallels. The US has its own racist, eugenic history- thanks Michael Lobel for illuminating these connections in the US art world.

Four downtown LA art spaces — the Japanese American National Museum, the Chinese American Museum, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, and Grand Performances — issued a joint statement calling the federal government’s response to the city’s anti-ICE protests a “manufactured crisis.”

Morning musing: sketchbooks are a record of what the artist is looking at over time, a way of notekeeping. Even a single page may be filled with imagery that arises over the course of several days, weeks, or sometimes, years. Palomino Blackwing pencil in A5 Blue Acorn Journal

Props to the Smithsonian! www.npr.org/2025/06/10/n...

"The greatest movement for social justice our country has ever known is the civil rights movement and it was totally rooted in a love ethic." —bell hooks (Shown: American by Choice oil by Paul Schulenburg) Art Getting it Right Reception Saturday, June 14 from 5:00 to 7:00

Dive into #WorldOceansDay 🌊 #ocean #oceanexploration #divingdeep #marinelife

In January I decided I wanted to focus on regaining my figure drawing skills. Six months, at least ten sessions, and how many sheets of paper(?) later, the progress I’m making is clear. Looking forward to seeing what I can do in the second six months of the year.

Learn more— “Five voices from the fields of theater, photography, and art history to reflect on one of Carrie Mae Weems’s most iconic projects” aperture.org/editorial/vi...

What a beautiful performance by Cynthia Erivo on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. When I saw that light I was immediately transported to Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table Series which I have been looking at just this week! Anyone else catch this seemingly obvious reference?

You don’t need fancy stuff to make art. But today I put on my new Blue Acorn apron and felt a shift in my attitude, ready to get to work— & I did! It’s heavy duty, goes over the shoulders and crosses in the back so it’s not tugging at your neck. Thanks Bromleys Art Supplies!

Another authoritarian and unlawful move by Trump in an attempt to wipe out people and history from the US that don’t align with his white supremacist ideology.

May 31 2025, Southampton, Uk

As described in this article, the @bostonglobe.com also reports from witnesses that “federal agents were randomly stopping vehicles and checking the occupants for immigration papers.” Checkpoints being frightening & inhumane aside, someone please tell me how this is not a civil rights violation.

Some sketches are deliberate investigations into an element I may want to include in a painting. I didn’t capture a likeness here but it proved a useful look at the cap structure. Palomino Blackwing pencil in A5 Blue Acorn sketchbook

As arts organizations across the United States grapple with the sudden loss of federal grants resulting from the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle culture funding agencies, some private foundations and individual donors are stepping in to meet significant gaps.

Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard folks, if you saw any of the federal immigration enforcement activities take place on the islands yesterday OR if you have any information on who was taken, please DM me.

A look back at sketches from a couple of weeks ago at The Arc Winchester, thanks Winchester Life Drawing Club for organizing these sessions.

This week in sketchbookland, a quietly poignant moment as a man and his pup companion take advantage of the sunny morning to enjoy the daily paper and a snoozle.

This was such an enlightening conversation. Here’s a note I made in my sketchbook. “The making of a painting is a process of composing— painting and composing are the same thing.” — Robert Henry

Save the Date: Launch event July 11th! Arches Studios annual Open Studios is being transformed this year. Celebrate 20 years of Arches Studios with a collaborative exhibit at God’s House Tower. godshousetower.org.uk/eventer/insi...

“We ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring," Springsteen said. I hope it inspires other artists to use their voices in this urgent time. www.americaamerica.news/p/must-artis...

VE80 in Southampton Leica M3 Fuji Neopan 100

Sketchbook page with color notes. Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil in Blue Acorn A5 journal

I heard today is vyshyvanka day. These are studies for a potential painting, it’s my grandmother’s youngest brother Hrynko, a Ukrainian partisan who fought Stalinist Russians, who imprisoned and executed him. Lamy fountain pen in Royal Talens sketchbook

Correction, this is actually sheets of A2 (which is closer to 16.5” x 23”)

A selection from another enjoyable life drawing session this Sunday in Winchester. Poses are relatively short (2, 5, 10, 15, 20 mins). Back in the studio, I clothespin them on the line and give myself an old school crit session. oil pastel, Winsor & Newton 50 lb. paper (approx. 23” x 33”)

“An artist should love herself, if she is to be true.” —Celia Paul

Lately I’m noticing how I can achieve a similar sensibility in my sketches and small oil studies. Kitchen still life, Blackwing Palomino 602 pencil in a Blue Acorn sketchbook, and oil on Arches oil paper