Coffee Break

15 min watercolour/ink in small sketchbook

The morning coffee break - there is nothing like the lift I get from my cup of coffee (unless of course it is afternoon when I drink tea!)

I am particular in that drinking coffee it must be in my Denby pottery cup. Whereas tea must be in fine bone china or porcelain but that's another story.

Strange the little idiosyncracies we accumulate in life.

Lone Boot

50 min watercolours on 10" x 7" watercolour paper

A lone boot... stands isolated and useless without it's partner. What happens now?

Hop for a while and maybe one day another boot will come along which matches this one perfectly.

Unknown Flower

Beautiful but the name escapes me. There is nothing worse than somebody forgetting your name, it makes you feel unimportant, insignificant and less than you are. Names are important!

To make it up to this pretty flower I shall make an effort to discover what it is called.


*I have discovered it is a Gerbera (thanks, Jamie!)

Lone Lily

20 min pen and watercolour in small sketchbook
A crowd of flowers of different varieties and one small lily separates itself to take it's own path. Of course it had to be the subject of today's study.

I love flowers because they always bring me sunshine, lift my spirits and carry me through the cold dark winter months when the days are too short and the sun too often absent.

Garden from Second Floor

30 min pencil on cartridge paper 12" x 9"

Garden from second floor was an interesting sketch to make because the perspective is totally different from high up.

Taking a fresh viewpoint in everyday life can often make us see things in an entirely different way.

Graceful Gull

25 min watercolour pencil in Moleskine sketchbook

Seagulls are fascinating creatures - birds of the sea, they can still instantly fly miles inland to follow the tractor ploughing the fields.

Teddy Ty-rone

15 min Watercolour pencil in Moleskine sketchbook.

When stuck for a subject I peruse the Teddy collection. Ty-rone was my model for today! He is wearing his tie to the office.

The Language of Flowers

20 min watercolour pencils in A4 sketchbook.
Carnations are said to represent friendship - in Victorian times the flowers that you sent had a message of their own depending upon the variety.

Friendship needs caring for the same as a flower - if neglected, it withers. In order for a friendship to thrive we must nurture it and each work at giving it life.

A recent lost friendship saddened me, but both parties must want to keep the friendship alive and if the other party turns their back what can you do but move on.

Bread and Butter

25 min watercolour pencil in sketchbook

Had to leave preparing the lunchbox as my dog escaped this morning, so I had to go chasing over the fields after him - what fun! Happily he is safely back home now but it taught me a very valuable lesson - check the gate before you let the dog out! (And a roll without filling is not lunch!)

Moving Target

Pencil in sketchbook
Watercolour pencil in sketchbook 15 min action shot!
Ralfi my dog in action. It's very difficult sketching a moving dog and Ralfi is never still very long - I think he's hyperactive!

Across the River

30 min sketch - view across the river (and yes, the guy in the canoe was really there!) - blue watercolour pencil in Moleskine sketchbook

Early morning is definitely the time to get out there and sketch. Barely anyone around, cold crisp air and the beginning of a New Year. My eye was caught by the little village church on the far shore and when a lone canoeist happened by I decided to include him in my sketch too.