Recent Posts

Various Pumpkins and Gourds

Various Pumpkins and Gourds

Reading Time: < 1 minutes With Hallowe’n afoot, the hops have their annual stack of ornamental pumpkins and gourds. These are some watercolours I have done of the ones I bought this year – making good use of the lovely Van Gogh Pyrrole Orange! I’ve tried in these to really 

Studies and Sketches

Studies and Sketches

Reading Time: 2 minutes It is a fact which cannot be denied that sometimes things don’t go 100% to plan. I was feeling a little despondent with the feel of “Boulder Gate” as it was not the loose style I was seeking, certainly on the rocks. I decided to 

Watercolour Landscapes: St Aidan’s, Rounday, Meanwood

Watercolour Landscapes: St Aidan’s, Rounday, Meanwood

Reading Time: 2 minutes And some more… I’ve really been beavering away with the watercolours this last couple of weeks. This was a bit of a quick experiment – actually the fourth of a set of quick experients. The original image was posted on the a photography group. This 

More Brusho

More Brusho

Reading Time: < 1 minutes Some further experiments with brusho, I have been playing more with using it like inks and painting stems and grasses.

Watercolour Landscapes: Kippford, Cwm Penmachno, Eccup, Slaithwaite

Watercolour Landscapes: Kippford, Cwm Penmachno, Eccup, Slaithwaite

Reading Time: 2 minutes I’ve been on a bit of a manic painting spree recently to learn and practice watercolour more. There’s been quite a few dead ends (and I may show some of these as posts about the development of what I hope to be better final images, 

Watercolour Landscapes: Tideswell, Betws-Y-Coed

Watercolour Landscapes: Tideswell, Betws-Y-Coed

Reading Time: 3 minutes After the first attempts at (probaly not the most appropriate scenes) from Kippford, I have tried something different to progress learning more about watercolours. I started with these trees. I’m quite pleased with this, though it is really a quick sketch – trying to get 

Lino Printing Experiments

Lino Printing Experiments

Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve ben planning this idea mentally for some time. As a child I have a lovely book of Joan Aitken stories illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski in his absolutely amazing silhouette style. I’ve always loved that style and as a child attempted to replicate it many 

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Reading Time: 2 minutes This is a beautiful winter warmer, spicy, creamy and smooth. It’s also perfect not to waste the scrapings from making your pumpkin man. Obviously the amount of flesh you get depends on how thinly you scrape the inside of the lantern, but as in all my recipes the amounts are open to alteration. If your pumpkin is about a foot in diameter you should be OK.

Brusho

Brusho

Reading Time: 2 minutes I found this amazing stuff via Fred Aldous, when I was researching things I could spend a lovely £100 Voucher on. Brusho Crystal Colour is a powdered ink pigment which coems in a number of colours – and (especially as it is incredibly cheap) it 

Kelham Island

Kelham Island

Reading Time: 2 minutes We stopped off for a quick wander round Kelham Island on the way back from Derbyshire. This is somewhere I have wanted to have a look round for some time, and certainly want to go back and spend a bit more time in. I am 

Sketching

Sketching

Reading Time: < 1 minutes Just a quick addition to the post from our weekend in Tideswell. While there I did a few pencil sketches inspired by the scenery. This is something I am only just starting to play about with, but here they are.

Tideswell

Tideswell

Reading Time: 3 minutes This is actually quite a rare thing, we have actually managed to get away a couple of times this year, this time for a 50th brithday weekend, staying in a bunkhouse in Derbyshire. I love the Derbyshire Peaks. It’s somwhere I don’t get to go