Open Gardens sketching

I spent a very pleasant afternoon recently at the village Open Gardens event. The garden owners very kindly humoured me as I sat sketching, and I also enjoyed some delicious cake :-). Sadly I ran out of time (and sketchbook!) and didn't quite manage to visit all the gardens, but it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. The ink sketches were done in situ, and the watercolour washes plus some additional drawing added later. Pics are clickable to enlarge.

Ink and watercolour, Seawhite of Brighton concertina sketchbook.

St Neots plein air

I spent a pleasant couple of hours last weekend at Riverside park in St Neots. I don't often do landscapey type things, especially not plein air, but I really enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air, and I got to visit a place I'd not been to before (despite it only being a few miles from where I live, tut tut!)

Ink and watercolour, about 5 by 8"

Back from France

Hello!

Been away for a rather glorious week in the Dordogne, France - lots of sunshine, French wine and cheese! Managed a little bit of sketching, so here's a quick on of the wisteria growing around the doors and windows of the house we rented...

Lots of inspiration, and lots of photos!

Out and about again, at last

Hello all! Well, finally the weather here seems to be improving. Today was lovely and sunny, if still a bit n the chilly side, so I took my sketchbook out for a walk. First Out and About sketch of the year. So nice to get some fresh air!

Quick watercolour and ink sketch of the little brook that goes through the village, sketched from the footbridge.

Looking forward to more clement weather and more sketching opportunities!

Out and about in the snow

Hello blog friends! With so much snow around, I couldn't resist taking my out-and-about sketchbook for a wintry walk:

I sketched this standing up, feet planted into the snow, juggling pens, watercolour paints and water brushes between hands and pockets... not ideal, but fun nonetheless :-)

Out and about again

Hello!

Well, we are finally enjoying some warm weather, and I took the sketchbook out to the (now bare) fields near me here in Cambridgeshire. I enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine while sketching this.

 Watercolour and ink, A4 sketchbook

The sun's still shining today, so I think I may make the most of it and head out again...

Out and about

Hello!

Well, today was warm and sunny (at last!), so I managed to find some time for a walk and a bit of sketching in the village where I live.

 This first one is the end of the bridleway which goes down into the next village.

And here's one of the houses - this part that I sketched is thatched, the other part has a tiled roof. Very pretty!

Both A4, ink with watercolour wash.

More out and about sketching

Hello! Well, the rain has finally stopped, for the moment anyway, and the sun has come out and warmed things up a bit, so I took the opportunity to nip out for a walk with my sketchbook.

This first one is the view from the cricket field towards the church. The rapeseed (canola) is in full flower, so there are lots of bright yellow fields around and about.

This one is the gate onto the cricket field. I drew it while sitting on the step of the cricket pavilion.

Both are ink and watercolour. Looking forward to some more dry (and hopefully sunny) days!

Painting outside, kind of

Hello again

One of my art goals for this year is to give landscape painting one last go, and see if I can muster any enthusiasm for it by painting outside, from life, rather than from photo refs. As it happened, the December/January Year of Painting challenge on the Painting Friends forum was to either set up a still life, or paint en plein air. I decided to go for it, despite it being the middle of winter and thus rather cold, windy and wet... in the end I actually painted from the relative comfort of my car...

First off, here's the painting. It's acrylic 12" by 8". I was painting for about an hour or so.

 

Here's a pic of what I was looking at - it's the village cricket team's pavilion, and the cricket field beyond:

And here's my set up - I had the pochade box on my lap. Just about enough room!

I have to say that I enjoyed the experience, so maybe there's hope for me and landscape painting yet. I'll have to get a portable easel if I want to actually paint outside the car one day - if anyone has any recommendations, let me know. Not the greatest painting ever, but I was pleased enough with it for a first outdoor attempt! Roll on the warmer weather!