Sketchbook Project Completed (At Last)

Sorry about the length of this post but I was too busy to blog last week so this is a bit of a combination. We have emerged from our Christmas snow now but I think we may still get some more before the end of winter. I cannot believe we have reached the second decade of 2000. Where has the past ten years gone? It passed in the blink of an eye. Anyway I hope you all had a great Christmas and are brimming over with creativity and inspiration for 2011.

I have not had a lot of time for art recently but I did manage to do the image below in ink and watercolour. I will probably do another version as I am not too pleased with how the trees have turned out.

Finally, after months of drawing I have completed my moleskine for the Sketchbook Project. Below is the painted front cover just waiting for the title and my name to be put in and then I can post it off to Brooklyn. My theme was "If you lived here" and while some of my drawings have only been loosely related to this, I have enjoyed them all. I am glad to have finished it though as it has taken a huge amount of my time. I have completed thirty four in all. A lot of my "sketches" are actually quite detailed because I don't do sketches. For anyone who hasn't finished their books yet, I have read on the website that you should post them off by the 15th of this month anyway.

On Boxing Day we decided to do a bit of snowbound geocache maintaining our own caches. Once you have placed those little treasures you have to make sure they remain in good condition where they are supposed to be and there are log books for people to write their names in. On our return journey in the late afternoon we were alerted to a sheep in distress by a rather pathetic bleating. The photo below shows what we discovered.

A youngster with her (his) head firmly fixed in a very small section of wire fencing. Goodness knows what she was doing but then she was a sheep so probably enough said. She was a very friendly sheep who seemed to sense we were trying to help so she remained quiescent throughout the tricky operation. I was on this side of the fence holding her head still while the other two unwound the wire with a pair of tweezers. Not an easy thing to do either.

It took a good 10 minutes to achieve but finally she was free.

A brief check over to see if she was wounded. Luckily she had only snagged her ear tag and caused a bit of bleeding; otherwise she was in good fettle.

Off to freedom...

Here are a couple of shots of her colleagues who ignored her cries for help and carried on feeding.

She needs to choose her grazing companions more carefully in future and we need to remember to take wire cutters with us on our next walk.

I am a huge fan (along with everyone else) of Orla Kiely. She strikes me as always having her finger on the up to the minute design pulse. Her new book Pattern is a delight. Full of gorgeous images of her creations and lots of information about how she started out and how she gains inspiration for her work. I bought this book way back in October but have been saving it to savour when I had more time i.e. after I finished my sketchbook. That time is now and I am really enjoying it.

Mary Tempest is a artist with a wonderful sense of colour. All her paintings are full of vivid colour and life and contemporary style and if you need cheering up, a visit to her website here will definitely fit the bill.

Untitled

Adam And Eve

The Kiss

A few photos from my recent folders. Mist is very atmospheric and really creates interesting photos. The three landscapes were all taken locally and below is a wonderful concoction of red berries and some dewy webs. I take much longer to walk anywhere when there are views like these to appreciate.

Berries and Webs

Pink Sky

Misty Woodland

Misty Morning Sunlight

Howard Phipps is an English artist who very well known for producing exquisite wood engravings. He draws the landscapes of Wiltshire and Dorset and produces amazing black and white artwork which is full of interest and detail. He has also illustrated books and produced his own. I have a book of his wood engravings and it is one of my favourites. You can find lots more images of his work here at the Rowley Gallery and also here at Bircham Gallery. A Google search for his name will turn up more.

Clearbury Ring From Homington Down

Win Green From Berwick Down

Ambling Hare

A Corner Of The Garden

Ox Drove In Winter

Happy Christmas Everyone - Back on 9 January (still trying to complete my sketchbook)

Well, we are ankle deep in snow if not knee deep...yet. We are being threatened with a lot more snow though and extremely cold temperatures. The temperature locally was -19.6C last night and that is very cold for the south-east of England. The country has drawn to full stop of course; what else would we expect. We don't do extremes of weather here. There may even be some left for Christmas Day which would be amazing.

This is my last blog post until the New Year as I am getting very behind with my Sketchbook Project and have just had an email to say that they have to have a posting date of 15 January and that is not that far away now. I don't want to miss the boat after all my hard work.

I enjoyed drawing this. I used an old image of my lovely cat Tiggy who is sadly no longer with us, but I changed his white bits around. The tree is quirky and a last minute addition but I like it. It looked a bit bare and needed an extra something and there is always a tree to fit in my world.

This is UFO from way back. It wasn't working and I decided to leave it for a few months and then reconsider it. It turned out to be a lot longer than a few months and I am still not convinced by it. I think the boat is too pale and needs more work on it. Still, this is it for now.

The new title is The Hitchhiker

Here is another drawing from my Sketchbook Project book. It is coming along but more slowly than I would like. I quite like this one. It will probably find its way to being a proper drawing eventually.

I love these two Hildegard Van Heerden etchings. I really like her restrained palette and simplified, elegant forms.

Beached

Pillow Talk

Well, the unthinkable has happened again in the UK in these times of global warming. We have had snow. Heavy falls for the second year running. Very unusual, and of course, the country has fallen apart again. Still, it does produce some very pretty photos and a good excuse to post them.

I found this gorgeous piece of vintage Javan batik at the K&SS. It was in a display by Diane and Jim Gaffney connected with natural dyes. It is 70 to 80 years old. It reminded me of a very detailed woodcut drawing, with lovely folky overtones.

Selvedge is one of my favourite magazines. I was missing a few copies but since my last visit to the Knitting and Stitching Show in October, I now have the complete collection. Below is a little taster of them for those who are not familiar. It is basically a textile orientated mag but has articles on many associated topics. Absolutely love it as it has masses of inspiration and interviews with artists and crafters.

I bet teatime is great fun at Mark Dally's house. He produces those gorgeous black and white graphic ceramics. He is a master of the quirky touch too. Go and have a look at his clocks on his website here. They are really lovely. I have come across his work in the past at the wonderful Art In Clay at Hatfield and have always been amazed at his talent. I see in his profile he mentions being inspired by Ridgeways "Homemaker" range. I remember my aunt having that particular range and being intrigued myself by the illustrative quality. In those days they were sold in Woolworth for very little. Nowadays of course, with the great interest in mid-century design, they are quite collectable.

Leggy Stencil Tap Top Teapot

Calligraphy Teapot

The beautiful artwork below is by printmaker Judy Attwood. Judy was born in England but now lives in Greece where she is inspired by the rhythms of the natural world to produce her lovely and detailed etchings. Her swimming duck is my favourite but you can find more of her work on the following sites: PaintingsILove here, ArtSlant here, The Gallery Workshop here and Painters Online here.

Goose

Flower At Dafni

Lemon Tree

Swimming Duck