
I might enter the Sky Portrait Artist competition so I tried to do a sketch to base a painting on. I’ve only got tomorrow to get it done! Madness…. Or I might enter the drawing instead
New paintings and regular art updates.

I might enter the Sky Portrait Artist competition so I tried to do a sketch to base a painting on. I’ve only got tomorrow to get it done! Madness…. Or I might enter the drawing instead

Painted three years ago. Another favourite painting I did a few years ago… Its based on the Willow Pattern which was a design produced by a lot of British potteries. There are lots of variations but most of them contain love birds and mountains, fishermen and priests on a bridge. Pine trees and the iconic Willow tree. I’ve painted it on a canvas and also as part of the scenery for a play.
I was in my studio trying to paint the swirls of clouds near the poles of Jupiter photographed by the Juno probe.
Now I’m staying home most of the time to stay safe. I want to go back but I don’t want to see people if I can avoid it. I will go back, hopefully when I’ve had the vaccine.

I’m in an Group called Orme Art and we did a winter challenge to take squares and copy a Bonnard painting. This was the result…

I’m not sure how many people did this as a few did more than one, but it’s interesting to focus in and see the different techniques used, from felt pens to pencils and paints….

I remember the long hot drive to Robin Hoods Bay a few summers ago. It was so hot in the car that I had the window open. I had no air conditioning and the temperature was rising steadily. My right arm was being burnt by the morning sun as we crept our way slowly North and East through Yorkshire. Its a large English County and full of cities, towns and villages, but also farmland and moors.
We visited a cottage in Robin Hoods Bay. It was upside down, with the bedrooms on the ground and basement floors, and the living room upstairs. The photo is my painting of the view from the living room. We spent a lovely few days visiting landmarks and beaches, but at the end I became very tired and aching, I thought I had bad sunburn… It turned out I had shingles. It was a memorable trip, but not necessarily for the right reasons!

Remembering more about our trip to Robin Hoods Bay.
Be warned! The village is very steep with a single lane access road from the roundabout at the top of the hill down to the concrete slped area at the bottom next to the pub… what is that called? Slipway… There is an old chapel sitting back on the right hand side, and there was a shop selling hats as well as the grocers shop and newsagents. Lots of touristy places where you could buy hippy things like geodes and scarves. Its really a delightful place to visit if you can climb up and down a 30?degree slope! When the sun is shining it is a perfect sight. There are other, larger, towns nearby, Whitby and Scarborough, all on the North Yorkshire coast. But to me this was the most picturesque I have visited, which is why I had to paint it!
On my Facebook memories. One of our old cats plus a painting I did of him. I can’t help but notice the similarity between him and our outdoor cat.
Cats come and go, but most of the ones we have had have been black and white ‘tuxedo cats’.
Why? Most of our cats were strays or rescue cats when we got them. Perhaps there is a cat family in the area, maybe they have the same antecedents? Certainly this cat could be the father of our new cat, or related in some way. I’m glad they came to us and sad that we lost this one. He passed away about nine years ago and might have been poisoned by antifreeze. He went missing and when we found him he was already dead. Such a shock. I miss him.

I have an Arthur Berry picture of a woman’s head, a pastel drawing. I got it a couple of years ago and I remember him as one of my tutors when I was at college a few decades ago. He was an interesting man, author, artist, playwrite, poet. The potteries Lowry. His technique was unique. Dark pastels and charcoal, depicting the potteries, it’s surroundings, its characters. Laughter and humour is part of it. I love his work.


Tried to paint Chartwell while watching #skylandscapeartist, bit old fashioned? Took about fifty minutes, in watercolour. Hard to hold my phone and a little A5 sketchpad at the same time and paint and watch the TV.
Watercolour sketch. My frozen shoulder makes my arm shake so the lines are a bit wobbly.


Orme art groups winter challenge was to take a numbered square from this Bonnard painting and try and copy it. Then when they are done by group members they are pieced back together as a final collaboration of the group.
I did one using felt pens and permanent markers. This one is done in watercolours. I’m not completely convinced by my painting but I’m not going to do any more to it. X