Good evening all, At last the exhibition with the Guildford Arts is up and running. It was, following a few adventures hung this morning and is now open for all at the Guildfor Institute building in Ward Street.

It is open office hours and is in a the cafe upstairs; there is a lift for those who have a need for one..

I have eaten there several times and although I am not a veggie, the veggie food there is super and I would recomend it to you.

 There is a private viewing which you are invited to, and I would love to see you there, just let me know if you are coming so that I have a rough idea about numbers.

 Urgent notice: Due to Covid illness amongst the gallery staff, my exhibition has been back dated to start on the 28th November.

Disapointing, yes but the main thing is for everybody to become well again.

Above you might recognise the painting of Benessan on Mull, The above is a water colour work up of the other weeks drawing, which was posted on this blog a couple of weeks ago.

This is another reason for sketching; to be able to revisit and work up work from previous travels. I produced this at my art group in St Andrews Church last week.

 Well only a few days now until my next exhibition. The work on show this time is a fun thing, because after all this tree work, which is ongoing but rather hard work, serious, worthwhile, but certainly challenging. So this show is lightening up a little.

Most of the work has been produced outdoors and on location, with the British weather as it is, being rather unpredictable on occasion. So a quick method of painting had to be used, which requires very little equipment, as it needed to be light and mobile. Water colour and ink line seemed to fit the bill. Many of the pieces in this exhibition were produced some time ago in previous travels and many have been painted for this show.

There is a body of about thirty images alltold of which twelve are on the walls. The above is of the steps leading down to the water side in the inner harbout at Dartmouth; I love this painting but sadly I had to be brutal in my seklection of images for show, so there just was not enough space to squese it in.

The show starts on Tuesday the 21st, thats next week at the Guildfor Institute in Ward Street, Guildford, shop hours.

See you soon Charles

Back to Scotland again. This water colour was painted a few years ago when traveling and exploring up in the far North West. A very small bay, near to Kinlochbgrieve, a few difficult to access miles south of Cape Wrath. When seeing this bay in the distance over the hills and stopping the car on the road, I started walking, having to traverse several fields, stone walls and slopes until finally reaching this charming place; quiet an effort was needed. I stayed there a good few hours. It was a little cool, that didnt matter as I was wearing a good fleese, but the sun shone and it appeared to be much like to the Garden of Eden.

I will never forget the quietness and calm of the place. Apart from the obvious beauty of the bay, what I remember most is the calm and quietness; I actually relaxed and stopped; taking no photographs, just painting this watercolour. God's creation at times is simpley amazing. After a long while the treck back to the car was taken, it was much more ardious and this time rather steeply uphill than the desent; I will admit that it made me puff a little. but boy was it worthy it.

We were talking about sketching the other day in our art group at Andys. We mentioned about being quick and light hearted in our approach, whilst enjoying the company of many who always stop to chat. The day before I had been in Guildford and took a quick snap of the clock on my phone, so I produced the above image whilst with the group.

The mood in the group was very much like sketching on the street, fun, enjoyable, people watching, people chatting, friendly exchanges, a nice way to go about things. The painting might not be up to the RA standard, thats ok, it was a sketch, a quick piece, fun and not to serious.

Insidentally, I love water, rain reflections, they are such good fun to paint. Conversation was lively and it was a really good enjoyable afternoon. At times we became a little serious, there being one amazing statment made in the midst of all the banter, which was. "Drawing is my best antidepressant pill". Now that staement I will not forget.