Category: sketching

Low Tide

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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.

Neighbourhood View

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I saw this view while I was washing the car this morning. The autumnal colours of the trees bringing this usually shadowed corner out into the spotlight, if only for a little while. By the time I had finished the car and sketched this, the sky was beginning to look a lot more grey. I used New Gamboge and Burnt Sienna for the main tree.

Another time, I might not align the lamp post with the edge of the refuse bin quite so well. Originally I wasn’t thinking of taking it as far over to the right, but it just happened, you know?

Painted in a hardbound A4 sketchbook Stillman & Birn, beta series.

The last three

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Today, three pears remain uneaten, although if those we had last night with chopped pecan nuts and maple syrup were anything to go by, I don’t expect them to be around much longer. Apparently, Pears ripen from the inside outwards, so there is no point in prodding them while still on the tree. You have to lift them off gently just before they drop. When you come to sketch them, you have to try really hard not to make them look too much like old-fashioned light bulbs!

End of the platform.

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This is a sketch I did recently while looking around the old railway station at Toddington. There are a whole lot of things going on there and loads to paint, which I hope to do more fully one day, now I know what’s there. Unfortunately I’ve discovered it just as I am in mid preparation for the new term. What I hope to do is to turn this into a larger painting and write more about the location, but it will be a few weeks before I get around to doing it! Just another thing to put on my ‘Places I must paint’ list.

Flower tower

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Some places have hanging baskets to prettify their surroundings. Others have window boxes. In Stow on the Wold they are big on flower towers dotted around the town, to bring some welcome colour to the summer months. The place is also big on vehicles, making it hard to find anywhere to park unless you get up really early in the morning. In reality, there were lots of cars parked behind the tower, and something obscuring some of it in front, so I suppose they have to stack their flower pots on top of each other, otherwise no-one would ever see them.

In the meadow

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Same subject matter, different location. This time in the meadows near my home. Fields of them, and nobody looking as if they are thinking about moving them soon. So while everyone was sitting sensibly indoors, I perched in the shade of a bale and breathed in the sweet scent of freshly cut grasses and wild flowers while painting today’s sketch. The only down side was when I became aware of an itch in the hand holding my palette and discovered a not-very-nice-looking creature happily sucking my blood. I flapped it away, but some hours later I can still see the puncture mark it made.

This is another entry in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

#OneWeek100People Day 4

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My people sketching was done a bit later in the day than the rest of the week, so a little busier. We had some interesting weather during the night, so not a lot of sleep, branches off trees, garden waste bins sent flying, that sort of thing. Still windy during the day. People’s hair flying every which way, and when it wasn’t raining the sun was so bright there was an outbreak of sun-glasses. Well, it is March..

I had a sort of idea how I wanted people spread across the pages today, but things never go quite as one hopes. On the other hand, I did the best I could as people came and went, and one doesn’t have a lot of time to think when people insist on moving so much . And at least I’ve nearly reached the magic number which I wasn’t sure if I would or not on Monday.

#OneWeek100People – Day 3

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If I thought people were bustling on day one, they really stepped up a notch today as the wind and the rain swept in. There were one or two people who stayed still (almost) long enough to complete them, but mostly I had to remember their headgear and attach part of another body to it, which made for some rather lumpy people today. It didn’t help I had to keep cleaning the windscreen so I could actually see something.

There were one or two I would have liked to develop a bit more, and my original plan had been to try and group people a bit better, but it didn’t really happen. There is always tomorrow.

Everyone wears hoods or hats these days. Umbrellas are out of fashion.

#OneWeek100People – Day 2

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The supermarkets must have special offers which appeal to the older generation on a Tuesday, as there was a noticeable difference in the age range of shoppers today – and more trollies being trundled. One good thing about the slightly slower pace was that I was able to do a few sketches and then add colour to a chunk of them while waiting for other people to come.

The only trouble was, I miscounted and had to squeeze two extra people in at the last minute…