Higgledy Piggledy

We’re in Bruges. There is a Museum of Chocolate.  There is a Museum of Chips. It’s a very cultured place. Like many very old cities, the buildings have evolved without much uniformity and the rooftops are all higgledy piggledy.  I managed a quick graphite sketch in my A5 hardback sketchbook,  it’s been pretty cold soContinue reading “Higgledy Piggledy”

Where It Starts

This is where it starts. With doodling and scribbling and sketchbooks. Just chilling out and playing with some materials, tonight some black conte crayon into my A5 hardbacked sketchbook. I’ve been doing a lot of work recently from drawings and photos I did at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial in the snow a couple of yearsContinue reading “Where It Starts”

A Life Of Its Own

Three years ago I visited Berlin, the temperature was around minus 20 degrees C and there was a couple of feet of snow everywhere. I went to the Holocaust Memorial, thousands of black stelae in a grid across the landscape and the deep snow threw ethereal shadows between the columns. I took a lot ofContinue reading “A Life Of Its Own”

The Red Castle

Husb and I celebrated St. David’s Day today with a quick trip up the Valleys to visit Castell Coch, which is Welsh for the Red Castle. It was packed to the rafters with visitors so I didn’t have much time to draw, just a quick sketch of some of the extraordinary carvings above one ofContinue reading “The Red Castle”

Time To Play

As any self-employed person will know, there’s a lot of paperwork and admin, business development and marketing to do and the past couple of months have been full of everything except creative work. If it wasn’t for my daily artblog, most days recently would have passed by without me doing any art work. Except forContinue reading “Time To Play”

The Poppies At The Tower

Back in November, Husb and I went up to London to meet up with friends and do a few exhibitions – the Egon Schiele at the Courtauld and the Grayson Perry at National Portrait Gallery – fabulous. We also trekked across the city to go and see the extraordinary installation Blood Swept Land And Seas OfContinue reading “The Poppies At The Tower”

Catacombs & Xmas

Following on from yesterday’s post, here are a couple more sepia drawings I did based on sketches from the St. Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat in Malta. The originals are very slight, quick scribbles. I wanted to try working with the walnut husk ink I made a few weeks ago. I don’t normally work with wetContinue reading “Catacombs & Xmas”

Sepia Catacombs

    You never know where and when you’ll get inspiration from. Husb and I visited Malta last week and I carried my sketchbooks, scribbling as we trekked across the lovely island. But it wasn’t until late in our stay that we visited the early Christian catacombs in Rabat. They are extraordinary and I feltContinue reading “Sepia Catacombs”

Maltese Cats Revisited

Revisiting My Sketchbook I’ve been looking through some of my old blog posts, there are over 3,000 of them, and it’s hard to remember all the artwork I’ve posted. Here’s one from just after Husb and I came back from a  short holiday in Malta, a gorgeous place, full of cats. I put some watercolourContinue reading “Maltese Cats Revisited”

Yellow And Red

Husb and I were sitting on an archaic bench in Valetta a few days ago so I had a scribble. Most of Malta is built from stone quarried on the island. It’s a yellowish limestone, a similar colour to the stone used to build Bath. Right at the bottom of a jumble of tall, skinny,Continue reading “Yellow And Red”