London provides continuing inspiration to Mike and several of the pictures on this website will be based on the sights and views of the city itself.

St Paul’s is an iconic building and, over the years, Mike has captured its image in sketches and paintings.  This one is from the bustling and ever-changing Ludgate Hill.  This picture was painted after Mike made initial sketches on a cold November day.

But if you approach the Cathedral from another direction, from the Millenium Bridge and Peter’s Hill, you see St Paul’s rising up behind John W. Mill’s moving memorial to the men and women of the United Kingdom (and the Channel Islands) Fire Service.  These were Winston Churchill’s ‘heroes with grimy faces.’

Finally a very simple, but powerful sketch of this remarkable building.  It incorporates Wren’s sculpture of the phoenix rising from the ashes which signified St Paul’s rising out of the Great Fire of London.

Everyone of Wren’s churches is unique.  All are well-proportioned and stylish.  And each has a different cupola, spire or steeple.

Built between 1672-9, St Stephen Walbrook is wedged in between the back of the Mansion House and the many modern buildings between Cannon Street and Queen Victoria Street.

St Martin’s is jostled by the other buildings on Ludgate Hill and opens directly onto the street.  It is close to St Paul’s, but seems to be undaunted by its more illustrious neighbour.

St Anne and St Agnes is the only Wren church in the city that is not stone clad.  It nestles in Gresham Street under the trees between the jolly Piccolo Cafe and the remains of the Roman wall.

If you ask Mike what it is about the river that attracts him, he will tell you that it is the way it is constantly changing.

In January 2013  in the midst of all the snow, we were invited to a lovely wedding in Hampton Court School and this was the view we saw when we looked out of the room in which the wedding had taken place.

Ever hopeful for the warm weather of spring and summer, Mike called the picture ‘Last Snow’!  It is a pure watercolour and captures the chill of the late afternoon in Richmond Park.  We saw it from a beautiful room which was full of warmth and love just after Claire and Mungo’s wedding.