This morning was cold, indeed exceedingly chilly, but needs be, so a walk was in order, so after saying cheerio to Liz, of I trundled into town along the canal towpath. Everywhere was white and lovely, people whom I passed all said good morning with a smile; a pleasant walk!

A photo of a cold snowy canal bank was just too easy. So a closer look was needed and by my foot was this superb flowering clover.  It seemed to say everything about being cold and chilly. A simple photo, a lovely moment and a super walk. Remember look closer at things before moving on.

The boats and what is happening there, well progress in being made.

The rough construction of both the boats is completed, above is a harbor type of rowing boat based on a traditional craft from the Shetland Isles. You can still see the Viking influence in the construction.

 At the moment I am wrestling with making the sea waves on a beach. Remember apart from a little glue and paint, it is all paper, but more about that on another day.

 

Those of you who know me well. will be aware that on occasion I take my hand towards maritime sculpture, from the discarded scraps of paper from around my desk. So after having just recieved a commision to produce two of the sculptures, it seemd a good idea to share the process with you over the next few weeks. There are two boats on my desk, firstly in the distance is a prety usual nondiscript harbour dingy and secondly a rowing boat from the Shetlands Islands, which is a direct decendant of the Viking longships.

You might notice that the hulls are both clinker built (overlapping) plank on frame conctruction. The lower one shows the frames drying in place. More to follow.

For the purists who might be concerned that my ink work is being neglected; here is an ink of a very cold morning on Exmore, produced from a photo taken a while ago. The idea was to draw this lonely deserted tree against the sky and clouds, all in ink; so how do you draw a light cloured sky, with a black line; quite a tall order?

 

 Well maybe not the best example of scanning (the sky has reproduced a little uneven) which I have ever done, but it is of the town center in Vietese in the south eastern corner of Italy, which we visited a few years ago. The heal of Italy, as it is oftern refered to, is a much neglected area of Italy from the visitors point of view. Financialy and economicaly it is among the poorer areas of the ecountry; in spite of this it was one of the more welcoming places which we hve visited in that country. In our travels often find that by getting into the more rural and less afluent financial areas we find a much warmer welcome. Thats quite a thought and says a great deal about our society and way of life.

The painting method used was ever so simple. A few very loose washes, followed when it was dry (in that heat only a few moments) with a  very simple and basic drawing, using a pen. The whole painting took about 20 minuets.

I love England and in particular, Surrey, but I do miss the lovely warm sun.

 Sorry about the short gap in showing you all my work, but life has been a tad busy over the last few weeks. For those of you who were not aware, my wife has had a serious accident; thankfully she is now on a what will be a rather lengthy road to recovery; thankfuly everything is looking brighter. Things could have been a great deal worse, so we are grateful.

As a result of this accident, Liz and myself are to a large extent housebound, so I am working from my memory and photographs. The above ink is of a tree by the roadside at Polesden Lacey, near the Italian Bridge; a snap which I took last year. Amazingly, with my having a little time on my hands at present, commissions and other works are just flooding in; as a result I have almost a years planned work ahead of me, so bored I am not.

Well must get on or it will take me longer than a year to catch up!!!