- Whitby panorama in pen & Ink

I've always had in my mind to do a proper full width Panorama of the right bank of the River Esk at Whitby Harbour in pen & watercolour. Here it is (another adulterated version) - 600mm wide and the pristine version will be at the "10 Artists & 10 Paintings Exhibition" at Baslow on Saturday & Sunday 22nd & 23rd October.

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Travel Posters continued

This time in square format.

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Oxford - Bridge of Sighs

My first ever visit to Oxford. The city is not only jam packed with bicycles and dreaming finials/pinnacles but it has a Bridge of Sighs. That's me sitting on the steps of a side door to the Sheldonian Theatre sketching the view.

More from our Ezra's Diary

Just beyond the underpass and what should we see but a man from Derbyshire County Council up a tree cutting it down (from the top) with a chain saw. It was alongside the old bridge across the River Derwent. Free 20 minutes entertainment! 

Ez's diary again

Now the Art Show submission season is over I have time to devote to our grandson Ezra's diary again. To cross the busy A623 at Calver between Chesterfield and Manchester we use the underpass (above). It's concrete wall to wall and floor to ceiling like an echo chamber so I can demonstrate my yodelling expertise to Ezra. I think he's impressed. He's in the No 2 pram with Grannie in control. That's Hulleys of Baslow bus crossing the underpass so it must be 10.45 - 15 minutes to coffee time!

Houses of Parliament on Father's Day

Re-union with the Uni of Sheffield Dept of Architecture Class of '67 in London last weekend visiting the Shard and Cutty Sark. Free on Sunday morning so did a 10 minute sketchette of the Houses of Parliament from under the London Eye. All equipment supplied by daughter Sian for Father's Day - watercolour paper postcard, squezzy watercolour brush, and emergency palette (seen in top RH corner) which consisted of 12 watercolour pencil dabs on paper... add the postage stamp, find a post box and the job's a good 'un!
Sian took my paintings to Art in the Gardens Submission Day and all 5 were accepted.

Supertram at Commercial Street, Sheffield

Started work on producing my artwork for submission for Art in the Gardens. Need to do at least 4 paintings by 13th June. This one will be in pen and watercolour.

Venice Rialto - stage 3 - finished

The finished work (part of). The complete work is ready for selection day for the Great Sheffield Art Show. I'm thinking of starting the Sheffield Colourists Movement!

Venice Rialto - stage 2

The collagey bit

Venice Rialto - stage 1

My next bit of artwork - Venice Rialto - stage 1 - the pencil drawing. It's going to be another over the top colourful acrylic/collagey painting! I suppose it should really be called "working boats at the Rialto Bridge".

My 300th post - the Shard behind Tower Bridge

My 300th blog post. My latest version of the Shard - finished it a couple of nights ago. It's based on my "plein air" drawing from our visit to London last October. This one is A3 size and I'm saving it for the Great Sheffield Art Show in July (hence the grey and partially coloured low resolution images)  - hope it gets selected. We've booked tickets to see the view from the top in June - it's part of a re-union with fellow architectural students from the year of '67 - hope the clouds aren't too low and/or wet!

Bakewell Bridge over the Wye

Last Tuesday - our Ezra's first day at nursery in Bakewell. We picked him up at noon and after a quick nap he was ready for a tour along the Wye to point out the swans, cygnets, Canada geese, moorhens and a variety of ducks. Here he is - in his no. 2 pram with Grannie Liz. The bridge in the background is the main road from Sheffield into Bakewell.

Venice Rialto Working Boats

It was snowing yesterday which made us late to Palmers Café so I didn't have time to do the usual sketch for Ezra's Diary. Also too wet, cold and snowy to go to Heely Art Club's Tuesday evening meeting so I roughed this out in pencil - I'm going to finish it in acrylics. Thought I'd get the bridge arch correct, so I got my drawing compass out. Must be the first time in 15 years! Good job I didn't bin it when I started doing AutoCAD in 1997. The painting will be for the Great Sheffield Art Show in July - hope it'll get selected. 5 more paintings to go by April 13! I'm going to finish it in the style of my Blog 21 August 2013.

The Shard & Tower Bridge, LONDON

The lower image took me 4 hours on a jetty sticking out into the Thames last Saturday 26 October. I spent at least half of that sheltering from the rain and galeforce gusts. I finally packed it in when a mini tornado sucked the plastic lining out of a bin in front of me, sending 2 empty bottles of beer crashing onto the pavings frightening the b'jesus out of me! I was hiding under my umbrella at the time and didn't realise what was happening - I thought there was an express train coming. The umbrella I've had in my sketching rucksack for the last 7 or 8 years is no more, deceased, turned completely inside out.  I completed the drawing at home.


 

Italy, Firenze, Ponte Vecchio

Tuesday afternoon 1 October - Florence. Life was too short to join the queues for the Uffizi Gallery so, instead, I sketched the Ponte Vecchio from the upstream side. That's me in the top photo drawing the bridge in pen. It was so hot and sunny I painted the scene in the shade of the arches supporting the Uffizi. I didn't have my stool so I had to kneel on the pavement (see bottom photo). My wife was on camera again - she hates long queues as well!