Just occasionally, although very serious, art can be good fun. I paint with some friends every other week in a local pub, we have done this for a while and it is a very pleasant way of meeting up, having a drink and chatting for an hour or so,

A few weeks ago I showed them a photo, we all agreed that it was almost impossible to draw; so the gauntlet was thrown down: draw it!! Three weeks later the above is the result.

It is nice being back home and simply enjoying my art for a few days, that is until my next adventure!

Well back home again after a superb week, the weather was mixed but on the whole very good and ideal for water colour work, so to a large extent, but not completely, my pens were laid aside for a while. It did me good and allowed me to rest from ink work, because to be honest, ink work is hard. and demanding, although very rewarding and fulfilling; occasionally I do need to rest. So this week that chance was taken, it did me a great deal of good, it was the right thing to do. I am back home and working on an ink with fresh vigour.

The above water colour is of Polzeath beach. the cottage we stayed in was about half a mile to the right of the headland

Yesterday was one of those days which you will remember, we walked a short part of the Cornish Coastal path around the Pentire headland; it was a tad ruff underfoot, but we managed.

 The above ink is of the Rumps Point, in ancient times a part of a Neolithic fort; the earthworks are still visible. The wind dropped, the sun blazed and it was all rather pleasant. We sat here for what seemed hours, it was so special.

Sunday was a special day, we found a church down in Polzeath called the Tube Church. It is a surfing and beach/community church in partnership with the Methodists; you might say, a little different, well I would agree with that. Everybody was welcomed, including dogs and children, and they were very welcome indeed; noise was not an issue. There are not many churches were you are warmly welcomed at the door with a coffee and cake. Kids were give small activity packs, dogs behaved excellently, everybody was just accepted as they were. Worship was super, lead by good, if simple music; Liz loved the violin. People sat every where, widow ledges, the floor, and some on chairs, even outside on the veranda and standing room only in the porch. With a basic challenging message thrown in; result, a very special Sunday morning.

Well now the art side of things. I could have taken a 10 mm lens with me, but I wanted to travel light so only my short zoom (18-55) would have to do. There are two ways of doing this very wide multi type of short of shot with a standard sort of lens. The first is with a tripod and then overlapping shots by a third,  before stitching them together with great care by hand, or with photomerge in Photoshop. The alternative and fun way is to shoot a whole load of shots at differing angles and then to put them together in layers (Photoshop) in a crudeish almost haphazard way, giving only cursory worry about accurate framing. Remember with both methods to take all the shots on manual exposure, with all the photos being at the same exposure; this sort of photo just doesn't work very well on auto exposure.

Out of interest and a point of caution, always ask permission before taking a photo of the above sort, especially if they involve children.

For a few days Liz and myself have moved sideways to Cornwall and are staying with friends in a super house near Polzeath, on the Camel estuary.

In the morning my bedroom window over looks the River Camel estuary, which lies between the Pentire Point and the Stepper Point; truly amazing by any standards.The above drawing is of the Stepper point from Polzeath. The image is only about 4 by 2 inch's. Working at such a small scale means that images can be produced fairly rapidly, which is quite important when traveling with family or friends who want to move on.

From a technical point of view it is rather difficult to produce really deep, dark blacks on paper without going over and over the area and damaging the paper surface. The answer is to shade the area twice then leave it until later in the day when it has dried out properly, and then shade it again. That way lovely deep black appear without damage occurring to the paper.

We all had a super time in Brighton.  The weather was stunning and almost everybody was friendly.

One restraunt manager was not happy at having a scruffy artist painting outside, a grumpy miserable owner came out to me voicing his displeasure. No point in responding, I moved two yards down the road and carried, on just ignoring him; he gave up and went away.

Everything else was lovely, did two water-colours and on ink.

Being an artist is to me, being able to partake in a wonderful way of living. Last night an admirer of my work was round; a pleasant evening.

Then today four of us who meet once a week to paint, talk and occasionally have a whisky together: met up and went sketching along the canal bank, near the above bridge. We drew until the light became too weak, no great works of art produced, but great fun, then we moved to Sue's house and had haggis and a wee dram. During the evening, Colin drew my shirt ( a colourful one), Hue sketched me painting and Sue worked on the trees; you know with all that added up, it was a very pleasant evening. Thank you all.

Tomorrow is a MIND trip to Brighton, Liz is coming as well. I hope to get a couple of us to sketch a little in the lanes; Should be good.

Lets see what happens.

Saturday morning and the lovely Liz went into the studio and stamped her feet in an exceedingly petulant manner. She expressed the view that the room was a tad untidy. The result is that I am banned from going out until it is tidied up, not a little, but a lot, Two hours later and a transformation has occurred; how long will it remain as such?

The drawing is of the coal quay at Battersea Power station.

I love going into London when it is warm enough to try my hand at water colour. Yesterday was one of those days.

A carful finicky style just does not work when on the street. The method I find most effective and enjoyable which works for me, is a sketchy sort of style.

This method is, a very light pencil sketch, followed by placing very loose amounts of colour onto the paper, before pushing it around with a pencil. Repeat this circle many times. Amazingly it works and some of these seem to be ok. The above is Henrietta Street near Covent Garden.

The usual rich mixture of people spoke to me during the day, people from Indonesia, China, South Africa and a few city types. An art student stopped for a while to chat, it was lovely having  a tech sort of conversation with her.

Now it is summer, are any of you going to try doing a sketch out of doors, have a go. it is fun.

Next trip to North Cornwall, only a few days away!!!

Well back home again and settling down to usual routines. One last image of Wells, it is the one I tried  and failed to post a week or two ago; I succeeded today. It is of the chapter house steps in the cathedral. It was drawn some years ago and it remains one of my favourite images of Wells. It is a studio ink piece, worked up from sketches and one of my photos.

The New Wine exhibition went well. As usual good interest being shown in my work and lots of rely useful networking. So now lots of sorting out of images, a trip to Brighton this week  and trip to Cornwall next week; so I need to clear the backlog on my desk.