Well nice things keep happening to me and they have again. Tomorrow morning is my birthday and I have reached the grand age of 70. Yesterday we had a drop in at the flat and many, many people turned up; for a day I was rather special. So for the image today I have sent myself a bunch of flowers and as I just love dandelions, they seemed the right choice.

Tomorrow the day starts with breakfast with friends, then drop into the Corner-house (MIND) and after that to wander in the direction of London and the South Bank, one of my favourite places to relax and chill out; plus maybe a sketch or two, lets see what happens.

 

A few of things of interest, Firstly I forgot to say why we were at the Bishops palace on Sunday; it was about the voluntary work which we both do on the chaplaincy team at St. Peter's Hospital.

 

And secondly I received a super e-mail yesterday; I have been accepted to exhibit at New Wine again this year.

 

Add to that, it looks like another trip is in the offing, this time to Cornwall in August, but more about that later.

 

The above image is of the Hoe Valley about 200 yards from the Wyevale garden centre on the Guildford road Woking. Several people saw me producing it and wanted to see the finished item.

Had a rather nice afternoon on Sunday, Liz and myself were invited to afternoon tea at the Bishop's Place in Guildford. It was blisteringly hot, beautiful grounds, lots of nice people and the Bishop gave us all leave to raid his rhubarb patch in the veg. garden. The Bishop has a lovely Labrador, probably the best pastoral worker on his staff.

 So we came home with a sketch, always find time to do that, a splendid afternoon tea and grand bundle of rhubarb. I love rhubarb.

 

Thank you for a lovely afternoon.

Well a very busy and successful week has just finished. The Thames work, a digital and hard copy has been finished and also the France 2017 work has been digitalised with a hard copy as well completed.

 

The image is of the Art Deco in the early morning light at Marlow.

 

For the Thames work a slightly textured heavy weight paper was chosen and the usual pen (a pilot g tec.) used. However the technique of using the pen was with a negative pressure method. Simply, that is by rather then pressing the pen onto the paper, lifting the pen so that it only lightly glazes over the surface. This produces a very light broken line. Repeated over and over, a light textural effect is gained.

 

By using the above method and keeping the sketches small in size, rapid meaningful images could be produced.

 

Time for sketching was limited as when going through the many locks I was acting as deckhand number 2; very good fun, even if not very wise. But a super five days.

 

Liz and myself as you know have just been away for a few days, we were sailing on a barge up the Thames from Staines to Reading. Our ship, the Art Décor, crewed by David and Joyce, is equipped for only two passengers and the crew. On Suite accommodation was provided with superlative food. I enjoyed being a deck hand for a while; whilst we were being spoilt rotten for a few days. Joyce is one almighty good, I will call her a chef!

 

But the important bit, I sketched and sketched; nearly forty pieces in all. The one above is of the village from Marlow lock. No carrying of paper, pens and cameras; the floating hotel did that for us, as a result work poured from my hands; Liz relaxed, reading and relaxing.

 

Home again and back to more routine work tomorrow.

One of the highlights of the recent French trip was sailing at dawn through the Camargue  nature reserve. This area is a massive delta estuary where the River Rhone flows into the Mediterranean.  We saw no wildlife, as it was all sacred of by the big boat which we were all traveling in, notwithstanding to sit on the upper deck and just take everything in was a privilege and an experience which will stay with me for a long time. The mist bank which we can see in the photo totally enveloped is a minuet or so after this shot was taken, all we could then see was the low sun and the tree tops; stunning.

 

Tomorrow is the start of another trip, this time on a Thames barge starting at Staines and going up river for a few days. Paints, pens, papers and cameras await; lets see what transpires.

 

Well back home properly now and all of life hiccup's as usual have appeared. I got home to a computer collapse which has only just been fixed, but all is ok now. I have a super computer wizard friend, thanks.

 

France was amazing, I learnt so much. Especially about the use of photography and painting and how they work together. Water colour and inks seemed to work well on the vista type scenes, the water colours when it was warmer; because of the dying time. The photos worked better for record shots and close up details. That worked well even if the rule wasn't totally rigid, an exception to that rule might appear here in a few days.

 

Liz and myself came home with about 55/60 inks, 12 water-colours, and many photos to be edited down to about 20 images; a satisfying volume of work . It all just needs putting together into volume form, the digital record is almost complete.

 

The MIND exhibition is behind me now, as are a couple of commissions, so for a week or so, maybe it will be allowed to take life a tad slower and relax. The last few days have been spent working on the tree project, I always enjoy that.