Welcome To The Art Department

I’m making a lot of literary art right now.

I met the author Shehan Karunatilaka, pictured here typing.

In lockdown, I drew a series of portraits online. One of the subjects was Olivia Colman.

The best-selling author and psychotherapist invited me to Paris, to make Surrealist art for a BBC documentary.

I drew a speccy version of myself into major artworks, just because.

This one is based on Millais.

I had a breakdown. I spent eight weeks in psychiatric hospital.
Making art was a big part of my recovery.

(Me, drawing on Hampstead Heath. Daily Telegraph)

But a teacher put me off. I became a writer.

For years, I was on staff at the Financial Times and The Sunday Times.

I often wrote about art, and artists.

I continue to write, and now make art too. This is one of my books.

Fifty pages of text, fifty pages of drawings.

Image: everyone has a light in them, somewhere.

From The Unbreakable Student.

This magnificent magnolia is on Platt’s Lane, near my home. As you see, one of the windows was boarded up for a long time.

I particularly like urban landscapes.

This is Church Row, Hampstead, from the church. Click the picture for a closer look.

Art residencies inside independent publishing companies.

I spent a week at some of the finest gardens in England. Click the picture for a closer look.