Bargain!

Used felt tip pens and wax crayon to capture this lovely day.  My son agreed to take me shopping as long as we went to Macdonalds - well, it doesn't quite fit in with my diet, but a Happy Meal cannot have that many calories can it?  :)

We went hoping for sunshine but took a brolly just in case - good thinking!  It rained but we had a great time and discovered this was the day the Olympic torch was coming through town.

And yes, I bought some amazing shoes... actually they are the most comfortable shoes I have owned in a long time, beautiful soft leather.

The thing about being British is you know how to enjoy life even when it rains.

Garden Market & Beach Day

Sketched in pencil and then decided to ink up part of it.  I think the ink looks much better than the pencil.
It was a great day.  We bought plants from the market and garden centre then had doughnuts with fresh cream and maple syrup at the seaside and a stroll along the beach.  Weatherwise a little drizzly but we had a wonderful time.

Babushka Doll

Watercolour pencil in sketchbrook

I have always know them as Babushka dolls, but now I find this is incorrect and they are in fact Matryoshka dolls.  Anyway I always wanted a set of nested dolls.  A friend brought me back this little lady from Russia recently and of course I had to paint her.  Isn't she cute?

Summer Solstice

Watercolour pencil in small moleskine sketchbook

Summer Solstice was earlier this year, I am told it was because it's a Leap Year.  The Longest Day.  The day indeed seemed long to me because I managed to pack so much into it and even had time for this quick sketch.

Standing stones are so magical, they always capture my imagination.

Cool Cats!

Ink in moleskine sketchbook

This is not so good, but  maybe a crooked cat is kind of interesting...

Today was good, the sun shone and that always cheers me up but also work went really well.  I achieved a lot and even managed to get people working as a team, so all were cool cats!

An hour for lunch.... well, it only takes 10 minutes to eat a sandwich and so.... 50 minutes well spent I think.

Monday Morning Blues

Watercolour pencil in moleskine sketchbook

I thought I should try to get back to doing a sketch a day if I can like I used to.  Life got in the way a bit, as it so often does, but now I feel able to make time in my busy day to do that which I love.

This is just a quick sketch.  Monday is always the worst day for me, having to be at work, start of the week and the weekend seems so far away.  I often think of Bob Geldof's song "I don't like Mondays".  Of course I don't go and "shoot the whole day down"  :)   I usually simply try to find the positives and today it was the people in my life, not just friends but also acquaintances that got me through my Monday morning blues.  A cheery smile, a laugh, a chat... little things that mean a lot, just people taking time to show they care.

Summer

Acrylic on deep canvas 12" x 10"

detail showing how I wrapped the painting around the edges of the canvas.  I think it looks cool and saves on framing.

The photo has brought out as white what is in real life more subtle creams, i.e. the hat.  I really enjoyed painting this one and (although I never thought I would say it!) I am fast becoming a fan of the quick drying acrylics.