Oxford Churches And Books, Glorious Books

I love drawing this simple black cat shape with crazy coloured backgrounds. I have used this image quite a few times for various pieces of artwork and it still has a lot of mileage left. I love the posture of this cat and the position of the tail.

A pointillist ink portrait of a young woman with a megalithic stone structure in the foreground. This took many weeks of work.

Pen and ink sketch of Art Deco bird and flowers

A selection of clay figures from my newly purchased book. There are another 495 like this. Click on the image to enlarge.

Eye candy for the artist - my purchases from Oxford

View of the beautiful box pews in St. Mary the Virgin at Oxford

I decided to make a visit to Oxford on Thursday. It is somewhere I haven't been for a long time but I decided I needed some me time, so off I went. It turned out to be a cross between retail therapy and church visiting. I love looking round ancient churches and Oxford has some lovely ones. The first one I visited was in a spot where a church had stood for over a thousand years. I love the feeling of sanctity of space in these places which has nothing to do with formal religion. The spaces which churches now occupy were sacred long before Christianity, but I think the worshipping of hundreds of thousands of people has increased the feeling. The second church I visited had some amazing old box pews still insitu. The majority of our parish churches have lost their box pews to conventional pews or chairs. I loved the feeling of cosiness tucked into my little box with the door shut. I should image the congregations of old could snuggle down to some sleep when the sermons got too lengthy.

My retail therapy consisted mainly of bookshops. Oxford has some great bookshops due mostly to the presence of the Universities. I have included a picture of my purchases which include a wonderful book called 500 Figures In Clay and another book which features lovely ceramics and shows step-by-step photos of how they were made. My third book was a Directory of Printmakers which details over a hundred printmakers with their work in full, glorious colour. I am neither a ceramicist or a printmaker but I love to look at the work of other disciplines and gain inspiration from them. I found some lovely greetings cards from another bookshop, but this time in Thame. They had a fantastic display of more designer-type cards and not just the mass produced ones. I could have bought lots more cards, but when I added up the cost of the books I didn't dare. Oh and I forgot to mention the two new pens and the "long" A5 sketchbook for doing my landscape sketches in. I think that just about covers everything. No clothes shopping - I didn't have time!

Dr. Who and the fickle hand of fate....!

This is a mermaid watercolour sketch I did recently. I do enjoy drawing and painting mermaids. I think I may have elongated her body a bit too much . Probably wishful thinking in my case. I am not sure I like the colours in the sea though. I may need to rethink that part.

This is Magda and she is just a figment of my imagination but I do have plans for her in a "proper" drawing at some stage. I like her hair and her rather fancy flower adornment. Definitely a stylish lady.

I enjoy producing pen and ink landscapes with very stylised trees. They are surprisingly quick to draw and have a lovely graphic feel to them.

This is a statue series which I photographed at a local garden centre and then photoshopped for some added drama.

I am a great fan of cats and really enjoyed drawing this pointillist tabby cat some years ago.

I watched a fascinating episode of Dr. Who yesterday which was all about fate and what could happen if we did one little thing differently in our lives and what huge changes there could be. Some of you won't know who Dr. Who is. It is an extremely long running (over 40 years) childrens' (and adult) series about a Time Lord who has control of a time machine and he and his assistants go whizzing through space and time doing good deeds. This episode featured his assistant Donna making a right turn in a car instead of a left turn and it resulted in changes on a global scale and the death of the doctor and many others, not to mention invasion by aliens. Very dramatic stuff. Can't wait for the conclusion next week.

I am sure that any changes which could have occurred in my life would not affect the earth but it is very intriguing to wonder what would have occurred in your own life if you just did one very small but very important thing differently. For instance where would I be now if I had decided nursing wasn't for me all those years ago. What would I be doing and where would I be? For some people it could the decision not to attend a party where they were destined to meet their future husband or wife, or even just deciding to walk along a different path from your usual and meeting someone you would never otherwise have met. So many possibilities and totally fascinating to think about them. I am a great believer in destiny and I think the really important things in our lives are meant to be and they will happen whichever path we take, whereas the smaller and lesser important things are left for us to decide. Anyway that is my theory and I am sticking to it. Nothing to do with art of course but I have been doing a bit of drawing and painting and the results are shown above for your perusal. I think fate and art make a good combination.