Well life has quietened down just a little for the afternoon. I say a little as we are listening to Verdi's Nabucco on a DVD; it is just awesome.

Lots is happening and with Eosom only a few days away, life is a bit busy with all the preparation. Those of you in the know will be pleased that the parrot is finished.

So not a new picture today, but a sketch from Prague done during our recent trip. Today I am having an off day from art work, well that is the plan. But if the desire is within you to be good at what you do, in truth there is no such thing as an off day from painting or sketching. So today, I have had two, one hour sessions with my pen; just keeping my hand in.

Try to draw a little every day, its a good discipline.

This morning is all wet, damp and a tad miserable so I need cheering up a little, then I thought, how about my blog; so here goes.

 Had another nice bit of cheery news the other day; a member of one of my groups has done exceptionally well in an international cinematic art competition; he didn't win; but he was one of a few highly commended entries, so well done and my oh my, that is encouraging.

Also Epsom mental health week is just around the corner, so being their artist,  life is getting busy from that quarter as well. Believe it or not, much of my Epsom related thinking at the moment is about macaws, the parrot type! All very strange, light hearted, and fun oriented, but also rather challenging and hard work.

The above image is of a lane in Somerset which is near to Shepton Mallet; when I was down there a few weeks ago the weather was  little better than it is here today.

Had a super bit of encouragement the other day. I have just lead a short course on water-colour with Mind, (a charity) and to put it simply the results were staggering.
The techniques learnt were, single stroke brush application, wash layers, and using ink with the  earlier techniques. I was amazed, as you can see the results were rather good. So the plan is to have a short break and then in a month to six weeks we will do a whole still life. Now that is exciting.
So this time the work is not mine, but others, apart from one of the images.
Lots happening, Epsom mental health week in about a month, and lots of other things. Next time I will tell you about my parrot, no I haven't lost it, but it is good fun.