My New Christmas Cards for 2019

Here's a little video I made showing the new design I've painted for this year's christmas. They're now available in the shop. Please CLICK HERE to see!

Wishing you a very lovely day. xx

Dreamlike Painting

I like to make pictures that aren't a conventional landscape, so that the ground and the sky are interchangeable, dreamlike, floating.

These paintings are done using my Tombow dual brush pens, the watercolour effect is made by adding water to the pen marks with an ordinary brush.

This next one below is painted in watercolours and the black is done in waterproof drawing pens.

Next is a picture made with my coloured pencils that I've had for ever. They might be ancient but they still do the job! 

Oh. And my black pentel brush pen and a gold gel pen. I love a bit of gold.

And finally here's a cute little cucumber that Middle Daughter grew in her garden. It looks like a lemon doesn't it? It's about the same size as a satsuma and I think they're called lemon cucumbers but let me assure you they taste like a very tasty cucumber.

Have a great week!xx

Zero Waste Jute Washing Up Cloth.

I've started a new blanket. I love to crochet it's such a relaxing thing for me to do in the evenings. My favourite part of course is choosing the colours! When it's finished I hope to have it for sale in my Etsy shop even though I know I'm going to love it myself and I'd be tempted to keep it but I have a LOT of crocheted blankets and as you can imagine I'm running out of space to keep them! 

I also love the actual stitchery part of crocheting too so I had an idea of something I could make very quickly from some old jute string that's been hanging around the garage for many years.

I don't like throwing away those plastic sponges that lots of us use for washing up the dishes. I thought I'd make a little washing up cloth out of the jute, here it is!

It was really quick to make, probably quicker than it took to make this blogpost and it's good to know that it can be composted when it's worn out one day.

Before I go, let me show you my latest sketchbook painting done in Tombow pens and Poscas.

The hair was a bit of an experiment and I'm please with how it turned out. This lovely bright colour scheme started with bright green and red and then the other colours joined in as I went along. I'm having a bit of a crush on green at the moment!

Have a great weekend! xx

Graduation and a Sketchbook Show and Tell

 My youngest graduated last week with a first class honours degree in Social Pedagogy. I'm a proud mama and here's a little watercolour I did of her in my art journal when we got back.

It was an extremely hot day but the setting next to the river Thames was perfect for taking photos.

 I like to draw different hairstyles, this one is done in Tombow pens.

This hairstyle was more challenging because of the detail but it's all a learning curve drawing something new. I loved how the cat came out even though she's missing a tail!

I'm always a bit fazed by drawing animals because I've very rarely ever drawn them from life but I enjoyed painting this one. Cats are my favourite animal so that helps.😉💖

I think I must have been channelling Frida for this one! I like using my pentel black brush pen, it makes lovely sweeping swirly lines. It actually ran out of ink so I took it apart and refilled it with ordinary black ink from a bottle. That means it will live for a very long time yay!

 My Pentel brush pen stars again in this one and I've added watercolour too.

This one began with a page of pinky purple acrylic. When it was dry I drew the girl and moon with a skinny white Posca pen and then finished off the picture with my big fat Poscas.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my sketchbook pages. I wish you a very enjoyable week ahead.xx

My Latest Sketchbook Pages and a visit to Somerset.

Here are my latest pages from my sketchbook. Life's been very busy this year and I haven't found the time to make finished paintings as such but I do make time most mornings to sit down and fill a sketchbook page. If I have a gap of not doing any art for more than a week I find it reeeeally difficult to get back into it again so these pages are important to keep the creative part of my brain up and running.

The top one is done with Tombow Dual Brush pens and watercolour.

 This one above is an inky background with a Posca painting on top.

 This one's done in the same way with Posca painting on top of a layer of indian yellow FW ink. 

I was having a difficult emotional day when I made this one.  When I looked at this later I was amazed I can see in it just how I was feeling that day. I love it when art does this don't you?

And finally  a more cheery one! I used my✨Sparkling✨Posca pens for this, they're so fun to use you can't but help make a joyful picture!

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We had a day out recently in Somerset and visited a little village called Nunny. If you were thinking that doesn't look like a castle, it's not.😉 I took this just opposite the castle where there was a pretty little bridge and  houses.

Here's the Castle...

All Saints' church in the village has a gorgeous gateway. I love to see climbing roses. Looking at the notice on the wall I've realised I've been spelling Nunny wrong, oops!

Before we headed home, we stopped at Burrow Mump. It looks like a mini Glastonbury Tor and when you climb to the top of the hill you can see Glastonbury Tor in the far distance.

The houses in that area are so pretty. I'm sure one day this will inspire a painting.

I'm very excited right now because my youngest boy is on his way back from Thailand for a visit! He's been away for a year the longest I've ever been away from any of my family so it's a big day. 

Have a great week and I'll see you again soon. xx

Colourful Crocheted Blankets and Some Watercolour Pages.

When I'm not painting, I love to create with beautiful coloured yarns. It's such a joy for me in deciding which colour to use next while I'm making, it's a bit like how I paint too.

 I could make these colourful crocheted blankets for ever and ever but if I did that then my house will be so filled with them I wouldn't be able to move🤣 so I've added a new section to my Etsy shop. Please CLICK HERE to see.

They're very easy to wash and dry in the machine and lovely and cosy too! 

 They make great picnic rugs or as a throw for the bed.

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 So in painting news I've been enjoying using watercolour. Here are the latest pages from my sketchbook.

 This one was done in watercolour along with a black pen.

Same again, watercolour but not quite so much black pen action this time. The veins of the leaves were done with a white Uni-ball Signo pen. I tried it first with a white Posca but it didn't show up on the watercolour. Poscas are great but for some reason the paler colours aren't happy at sitting on top of watercolour. If anyone can tell me why, I'd be interested to know!

Watercolour but this time with a gold pen that I found behind a cupboard when I was clearing up the other day. I love using anything sparkly or shiney so this was fun to do.

This last one is a bit of a mixed media, a black Pentel brush pen for the initial drawing, a watercolour background and underpainting, Tombow pens in her hair and Prismacolor coloured pencils decorating her body. Oh.. and a silver Posca pen too. I'd have used the metallic one from the previous drawing but I lost it again.🤣

Have a great week. xx

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Inspiring Places

These paintings were done in my sketchbook just before a very busy time began a couple of weeks ago. The top one is done in watercolour and a black pen and the second one in Tombow markers. I love how you can add water to them to make them flow like watercolours.

 A funeral in Wales took us near a beautiful part of the country where we saw these creatures carved from tree trunks.

We stopped here for a cup of tea before the long journey home. What a lovely view.

This waterfall looks magical to me, straight out of a fairy tale!

🍃🌿 🍃🌿 🍃🌿 

My birthday was in December and my son and his partner bought me a ticket to Kew Gardens. We waited until June to go because when you're visiting a garden you want to be able walk around at ease looking at all the glorious colour don't you?

Well as it turned out we happened to go on the wettest and most rainiest day of the year!

But it turned out to be the best thing because there weren't the usual crowds and there were plenty of indoor places to look around such as the Palm House.

I love the old cast iron architecture, it compliments the organic growth so well.

This is a view inside the roof of the Palm House.

One of the attractions at Kew is the Hive. It promised a unique immersive experience, connecting you to the bees in a beehive at Kew. This sensor picks up vibrations from activity of the bees and these vibrations are sent in real time to the Hive in the form of man-made lights and sound.

Dare I say it? I actually preferred it to the Eden Project and you might know how much I love Cornwall!

Since I've been writing this blogpost I've discovered so much more about what we could have experienced at Kew gardens but having enjoyed a rainy day there, I know it has a whole lot more to offer on another visit one day.

Have a great weekend.xx

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