Summer Sketching

For several years now I’ve gone away in July with my friend Katy for a yoga retreat to Crete. The venue is a lovely bougainvillea draped white house on a hill beside the sea in a tiny village called Sfakia. https://www.yogaoncrete.gr

I try to draw as much as possible, starting with the journey. I’m never too frustrated with delays and setbacks because with a sketchbook it just means there is more time to practice.

When not doing yoga, we spend time resting, getting to know the other yoga students, eating and visiting the local beaches.(I draw!).

I’ll show you more beach drawings and tell you about the yoga next time when Ive finished scanning my summer sketchbook.

Where has the time gone? Summer is over!!

The best of Summer is certainly past, any day of sunshine now is to be appreciated as the delightful treat that it is. My summer ended in a rush of activity. I looked after  friends’ garden whilst they were away:

I didn’t have to look after the livestock thankfully, though I did enjoy my daily chat with the chickens. Beautiful creatures, as long as you don’t look at their horrible pre-historic dinosaur talons…

My own garden ( a profusion of pots on my roof garden) has given me much joy and delight this summer:

Each griddled courgette has been delicious, each magically grown tomato a burst of acid sweetness on the tongue.

 

The poppy seeds harvested from Chepstow have been surprisingly fruitful – pots of tiny pretty poppies and blue seed heads .

Gerberas are so jolly, and such good value! This plant has flowered repeatedly for 3 months, looking lovely every day. I will most certainly have more of them next year.

I have enjoyed my summer garden immensely, and might even get my act together to plant up spring bulbs. I do love a beautiful tulip… Watch this garden diary/sketchbook!

Next post : a few get togethers and jaunts before beginning the serious business of GOING BACK TO SCHOOL… 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

Heat and Happiness

I planted up a few pots this year (ahem) and my garden is bringing me much pleasure.

I am now washing the herbs thoroughly since the pigeons have taken to sitting in them…

Some nights it is actually too hot to sleep. This is England, it only happens about 3 days per year, so I won’t worry too much.

I promised Sadaf that I would draw her. Why is it so much harder to catch a likeness when you know the person? Is it just me? Sadaf has a wider kindlier face that this with her eyes spaced further apart. I will have another go soon.

Above is a drawing that in no way captures the charm of my goddaughter, but below is one that captures my friend quite well!

I have been having a #sktchy binge this week, practising portraits, so I will post the results next time. Enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts!

A trip to Ireland – Donegal (part 3)

 More lovely scenery, another lovely day. (Repeat after me: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing”).

I would never tire of looking at this land if I lived here, although I might crash the car regularly onto the verge whilst gawping at the passing loveliness.

Click on the image below to enlarge if you want to read my writing, otherwise : we went to Fanad Head.

On the way back, this sight greeted us :

There is only so much fine dining one can eat without becoming slightly jaded in the palate… or craving proper fish and chips. So on a local recommendation we made our way to the local pub to fill our bellies full of humongous haddock.  Superb! It was lovely to see whole families out to dinner, and people of all ages mixing happily in the pub. In England, age groups often seem segregated, but in Ireland you can have a drink with your granny and no one thinks it strange. I haven’t got a granny, but I do have an Irish mammy, so that will have to do.

Just along the beach from the harbour at Rathmullan is this striking sculpture. It’s impact is somewhat diminished be being positioned in front of a brightly coloured and cheerful children’s playground.

and whilst we were there, a funfair.

Well, one more post should wrap up my trip. Next I want to tell you about the FANTASTIC Glebe House – home of the artist Derek Hill and it needs a few superlatives. Let me know what you have enjoyed about this one. All you have to do to comment is click on the article, or picture rather than the Home page, and there you are: witty bon mots published.

A trip to Ireland – Donegal (part 2)

We drove through the beautiful Donegal countryside, under showery skies and climbed higher and higher until the lush hedgerows gave way to granite, ferns and blanket bog and we entered the 16500 hectares of Glenveagh National park.

The castle was built in the 1930s by John George Adair who made his fortune in America. He wanted an estate to rival that of the Royal family at Balmoral, and found the land and lough beautiful and suitable for the country pursuits of hunting, fishing and partying. Unfortunately he found the local people less than picturesque so had 244 tenants evicted, which did not endear him to the population. Oh no.

The castle has gorgeous gardens (even in the rain) with interesting planting, especially in the walled garden and orangeries.

I had a flight of fancy here, imagining myself rosy cheeked tending the vegetables and flowers and then cooking delicious meals and serving them to a handsome curly haired family on a scrubbed table in the cottage with a cosy peat fire to keep us warm and dry. Then I remembered that I don’t really know anything about gardening and the needle scratched to the end of the record sharpish. Oh well…

How rich and varied the hedgerows and verges are here. The fields are still smallish and there are a lot more hedges than where I live in Worcestershire. The variety of trees, shrubs and plants were a feast for the eyes (and presumably for wildlife too).

Here is another view of another Loch and Donegal hills. My watercolour skills are starting to improve. Is this getting boring yet? I’ve got more….

A trip to Ireland. First stop Belfast.

I haven’t been away anywhere for ages and ages, so I broke open the piggy bank and set off with my favourite Ma to see what we could see. We always have great fun travelling together – we amuse each other greatly. We started our journey by taking the overnight ferry from Liverpool to Belfast, arriving in time for breakfast before my cousins went to work.

Belfast is small and vibrant, with great culture and fantastic restaurants. We had a superb meal out with family at James St South, where the food was top notch and the serving staff friendly, unpretentious and knowledgeable. http://www.jamesstreetsouth.co.uk/

This is what I ate. I’m not sure about anyone else, I was concentrating.

We did a whizz round on a sightseeing bus which I always think is a great way to get a flavour of a city. It rained of course, which just made the half open top deck more fun as we all crowded back and forth, in and out.

The beautiful Titanic Centre

Harland & Wolff Shipyard where the Titanic was built   http://https://nmni.com/titanic/Design-Build/Harland—Wolff/Belfasts-Titanic-Shipyard.aspx

Public artworks…

The Peace Wall and sectarian murals which are being repackaged as cultural artifacts for tourism:

 

and to finish up, a cosy victorian pub- just the right place to warm ourselves up on a cold wet July day.

Next stop Donegal and the Wild Atlantic Way.

Summer time sketching – staff and students.

So I got brave and a bit sketch happy around school as the weather got hotter, meetings were held, exams were finished, and things came to an end.

This dodgy lot are in actuality highly skilled and talented professionals- not the bunch of burglars I have depicted.

There is never a dull moment -even in meetings – if you whip out your sketchbook and pen. Doodling has been proven to increase retention of facts during lectures and meetings. So there.

More talented colleagues…

and a bunch of students relaxing at the end of term. They love to watch me draw, and are usually happy to sit for me, even when the drawings are ‘fails’…

Shutters are opened, dust sheets removed and fresh flowers put in vases. This blog is open again.

It is the Summer Holidays, although being in England that does not always guarantee summer weather. The end of June was blisteringly hot, but of course, as soon as school finished the weather became ‘changeable’. Never mind. The roses have been brilliant this year, the skies are endlessly beautiful and interesting, and each day out is an adventure as long as you have both sunscreen and an umbrella.

I have lots to show you over the next few posts; experiments with gouache, sketches of colleagues and students, and my trip to beautiful Donegal in the north of Ireland. So let’s get on!

Waiting room sketches are fun to do, you can never be sure how long you have to draw the victim model. The first two sketches were done with my Platinum Carbon pen with a fine nib.  l love the fine line, but I find that it tends to leak ink over my fingers if it is shaken up in my bag too much. It is more of a desk pen.

It’s weird, just looking at this drawing makes me want to yawn with them.

The trusty Uniball eye, always gives dependable waterproof results (on the right) but I must watch out for the occasional sketch done with a Lamy Safari using soluble ink (on the left).

This Sketchbook is an A5 Seawhite of Brighton one. I was unhappy at first because I was turning out a higher proportion of reallybadwhyareyouanartistanyway? unsatisfactory pages than usual :

 

But AS ALWAYS practice makes perfect, and sometimes I turn out a drawing like this one done at Speech Day whilst these parents watched their lovely children perform songs,

or this one of one of my favourite students which captures him and pleases my heart.

It is  tempting to post loads of images in one go, but I am shy of boring you… How soon would you like to see my next post? Tomorrow? Next week? Let me know your thoughts.