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"

Black Combe ink and watercolour

Here's another ink and watercolour painting, based on a pic I took up on Black Combe in the Lake District a few years ago. Enjoyed fiddling around with this one last night for a couple of hours, then spent the rest of the evening on the 'Rightmove' website looking at property for sale in Cumbria...

Ink and wash sketches

An item that has long been on my wish list is a Lamy Safari fountain pen, so for #inktober I decided to treat myself to one at last :-) These ink and wash sketches are based on photos of various places I've visited over the past few years. The ink is Platinum Carbon Ink, which was sold with dire warnings about how it will kill your fountain pen if you're not careful!

A change in the weather

I don't often get the paintbrushes wet these days, but felt inspired to have a go after a wet and windy walk around the fields here the other day. After a nice settled spell of warm weather, this is what it's been like for the last few days!


Watercolour, ink, wc pencil, quarter sheet.

Yorkshire dales collagraph prints

A couple of months back I did a printmaking workshop with Sherry Rea, and following on from that she very generously offered the workshop group a day of open access in her studio. So we reconvened a few weeks later and got printmaking again!

I decided to try another collagraph, this time a landscape inspired by my wonderful week in the Yorkshire Dales earlier in the year. I pulled several prints from the same plate, trying out different colours, different amounts of wiping/leaving ink on the plate, etc. I was really please with the results - my landscape efforts thus far in other media have been somewhat disappointing!

So, here they are...

 I need to pick a favourite to get framed, but I don't know which one I like best!

And here's the collagraph plate...

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!

Sketching at Gransden and Waresley Woods

I snuck out for a couple of hours today and had a nice wander around a local nature reserve. Spectacular bluebells!

Sketching at Wimpole Hall

Just a couple of sketches at the National Trust's Wimpole Estate...

The house, and the folly ruins. I spent a very lovely afternoon basking in warm early spring sunshine!

Bleak and beautiful, a winter painting

Hello all!

This is a mixed media and collage painting I've entered in the Jackson's Art/Strathmore Wonders of Winter competition on Facebook. It's based on an earlier ink and watercolour sketch (it's on p4).

You need to be logged in to FB to vote, so if you're on there, pop on over and check out all the entries, and vote for your favourites. Personally I'm pleased to see the back of winter!

Bleak and Beautiful
Mixed media and collage, A4

The long shadows

Had a lovely afternoon out a couple of weeks ago at Wimpole Hall. In fact, the weather was so good that I decided to save the house and gardens for another day, and went for a wander around the parkland. I especially liked the mature trees – still leafless in the early spring, casting their long shadows in the late afternoon sunshine… I’ve put these in a chillier, more wintry setting…

 Acrylic on paper, 10 by 14"

A frosty morning

Hello again, here's my latest effort, an ink and watercolour based on a photo I took on a frosty walk earlier in the year...

This is a view at the edge of the cricket field here in the village. I did the initial drawing in Indian ink, smooshed around a little with a waterbrush, then added some watercolour washes.

Cropped in a little from A4, ink and watercolour.

View from Pencroft Farm

Hello again!

Thought I'd share a recent painting here to see what you peeps think... I am SO not a landscape painter, it really is a bugbear for me. I went out for what was a wet and windy walk a few weeks back, sketchbook in pocket. I sketched the view on site, and painted the painting when I got back. I'd love to get into some plein air painting, but I am such a wimp if it's cold and rainy! It's 8 by 10", acrylic on canvas .

Back from my holiday!

Hello blog friends!

I've been away on holiday for a wonderful week on the south coast of the UK, near Charmouth in Dorset. We rented a gem of a little cottage near the coast, and enjoyed unseasonably warm and dry weather too - how lucky! Lots of walking and pottering on the beach looking for fossils, and some sketching was squeezed in too...

This is my sketch of Golden Cap (the highest cliff on the south coast), from Charmouth beach. We had walked up to the cliff top from our cottage, than along the coast path to Charmouth.

Another walk to the beach at Charmouth, on a grey but warm and dry day.

Sketch of some seaweed on the rocks at Charmouth. All these were done in an A5 sketchbook, pen first then watercolour pencils and/or watercolours.

We had a great time - what a beautiful part of the world! Already looking forward to going back there some day...

Out and about

Spent a nice hour or so yesterday up by one of the ponds in the village, sketching. Actually got a tiny bit sunburnt! I'm hoping to base a linocut on this sometime.

 A4 sketchbook, Pitt pen and watercolour.

Bleak and beautiful

A last look at winter - you were bleak and beautiful, but you hung around for far too long!

 Ink and watercolour, A4 size.

Looking forward to warmer sunnier days!

Autumn's Garden

Here's the painting I've been working on for my niece's nursery, finally finished, varnished and delivered!

 And some details:

Acrylic on canvas, 20 by 30", the same size (and in the same style) as the painting I did for my nephew, James's Jungle. Such good fun to plan and paint, it has a lovely storybook feel to it, I think!

The brook in winter

Hello again! Onto the next and final, I think, layer for this reduction linocut, a warm brown.

The brook in winter
Reduction linocut printed on Zhao Zhe Chinese paper
Printed area 6 by 8"

I don't seem to be able to get a good picture of this - the paper (thus the borders) is actually a creamy yellow, not the grey that it looks like from here. Must try harder...

Hopefully, if the Arctic weather here ever goes away, I'll be doing more linocuts based on sketches and drawings I make out and about locally. My project for the year!

The Brook, Yelling

At last, a new linocut :-)

I started out by making a simplified sketch of my 'out and about' sketch from a couple of weeks ago... I traced this and transferred it to a soft-cut lino block. Printed area is 6 by 8 inches.

 First pass was a pale grey for the reflected sky, the next a darker grey for the water. I'm using a Chinese paper which is a yellowy creamy tone.

I've carved out the sky holes, and the next step is a blend. I don't actually own a roller big enough to put the ink down in one go, so I used two rollers for this:

 And this is what the inked block looks like:

 And here's the print so far, was pleased with the way this turned out, there's a nice smooth gradient:

Next I inked the tree, another blend:

 I have done more but don't have photos yet... will update tomorrow...