Pears!

Faced with the first pristine blank page of a new sketchbook... Pears! You just can't go wrong with pears...

A charm of goldfinches original print

Here's another drypoint with chine colle, a charm of goldfinches (a couple of versions). We seem to have lots here at the moment! Hope your Christmas break (if you've had one!) has been all you wished for, and that 2016 brings health, happiness, and lots of art!

Chinese lanterns drypoint and chine colle

Chinese lanterns original handmade print, drypoint and chine colle. Loved doing this, the chine colle adds a real fizz of colour!

Drypoint hares

Here are a couple of small drypoint prints - 7 by 10 cm. Loving watching my local hares!

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!

More inky fun!

Some more inky fun. This is acrylic ink, dropped into water.