Sketched this view in Imperial Gardens, Cheltenham, this morning before it became too hot, although I did find a handy tree to sit beneath.Plenty of people walked by, but only one stopped to ask what I was sketching, and declared it “Smashing!”
sketched in a Stillman & Birn 7.5 x 7.5 inch sketchbook
A tip if you want to sketch a figure – look for someone who is sitting comfortably and engrossed in a good read, preferably a book or a newspaper, as they are less likely to get up and walk away than someone glancing at social media. Actually I hadn’t intended to tackle such a subject at all, but his orange jersey jumped out at me like a beacon. I don’t know what he was reading, but he was still there when I had finished – the perfect unsuspecting model!
During a routine garden tidy-up this weekend, one of the casualties was a sad looking bedraggled poppy with shrivelled leaves flopping over the wall and across the pavement. I saved these seed pods to paint and to keep until they are ready to burst and provide us with a lot of offspring next year.
We have lost the sun for the moment, but the low light on these black plastic bales of silage in a field near Snowshill was still enough to attract my attention today. I used combinations of yellows and blues to create the greens, mostly Cadmium Yellow, New Gamboge, French Ultramarine and Prussian Blue.
5×8″ landscape Moleskine sketchbook
We bought this seat as a garden feature but also for somewhere to sit in order to take a breather from the never ending little jobs that always seem to need doing in any garden. Last year some self sown marigolds grew up around it, and this year a lone poppy plant which seems to have expanded in all directions, has completely surrounded it, making us feel like intruders!
May be next year we will get to sit on it, that is if the foxgloves don’t beat us to it.
One of the joys of Summer is the sight of poppies in a field. I am obviously not the only person to think so, as these were growing in a field alongside a busy road, and there were so many people stopping their cars, vans and lorries to take in the sight, take photos and even selfies standing among the poppies, that the traffic soon jammed up.
On a recent brief visit to South West Wales we stopped off at a place called Laugharne on the south coast. Home to a Medieval castle (a lot of castles in Wales) which later became an Elizabethan mansion, but did not survive the Civil War, and has remained a ‘Romantic ruin’ ever since.
Later, Wales’s national poet, Dylan Thomas lived there for a time in The Boathouse, a house perched on a cliff with stunning views. I believe Thomas is buried in the local church and his home is now a museum.
There were a few small boats there when we visited, but as it was low tide they were going nowhere.
A painting from a quick trip to Wales, “Carmarthen morning” 13 x 20 inches. Covered a lot of miles in a short space of time and travelled further west into Wales than I have before. Lucky with the weather, most of the rain fell overnight, leaving the days damp but bright.
Getting ready for the start of a new term tomorrow – it will be the first time we have been together in a real live face to face class since covid. It will be good to see everyone other than their head and shoulders staring out of a screen!
I was feeling a bit low today. Probably something to do with the low light levels after all the sunshine we have been enjoying over the past week. However, finding a bright Orange and pairing it with a blue and white jug (and an apple), and applying watercolours did wonders to lift my spirits.
Graham Findlay Watercolours 