Well a good week just gone and on Thursday, we are off traveling again. This time to the New Wine festival at Somerset where I am again exhibiting and also to our usual lovely stay in that very old barn conversion in Crossecombe. 

On Saturday just gone I was bullied by friends and wife to enter a local art festival, exhibiting one of my waste paper sculptures and lo and behold it got the first prize. IT being as it is would not let me place an image of it on this site, so here is a similar creation, this time of 1st. cent. Galilee and the type of boats which the disciples used to fish from.

We looking forwards to a good refreshing week at New Wine and lets hope that my exhibition sells something. After that we are going to spend a few days relaxing with our dear friends in Sheffield.

See you in two weeks.

 

Had a good few days during the last week, lots has been happening. One of the events as well as the usual routing was talking to new art students at a local school (year 10). There was the usual mixture of interested and the not so interested; that's ok. But amongst the interested were over half a dozen young people with rather surprisingly amazing talent. I would love to see their work after three years at art school. It was pleasant experience, everybody was so nice and kept calling me sir!!! I'm not very used to that.

 

Just so that you know that I am not ignoring my trees, here's one I finished a few days ago.

First thank you to Malcolm; indeed Melk is in Austria and not Germany. Maybe to many borders were crossed and forgetfulness on occasion occurred as to where in reality I was.

Sketching on a trip like this is always challenging, and opportunities have to be taken as they arise. The two sketches on view today were both done from the boat as we chugged along.
The upper piece is a fishing lodge somewhere in Hungary, these were every few yards even in the wilder stretched of the river. You will notice the derrick type apparatus, their fishing is very technique ridden at times; if you are interested I will explain how they do it. The lower one is of a cabin cruiser on the continental divide, we saw many small boats of all shapes and sizes; the locals obviously loved their water based pastimes.
Works like the above may not be fine art, even if they can be rather nice drawings; however they do add significantly to the work as a whole by making statements of life styles, etc.
The work on the Danube is now finished, it comprises of  91 quick works, 6 worked up water-colours and about 100 photographs, an essay and lastly a map, filling three volumes.  This is available for anybody's perusal, just contact me.

Melk in Bavaria Germany, was one of the wonderful places we visited on our recent travels. The village itself lies beneath the Monastery which is situated high above on a rocky outcrop. Very picture post card stuff. But the best part was the people, they were so friendly.

 At on point Liz was wandering around retail gazing whilst I was doing the above ink/watercolour sketch. Two eight or nine year old girls, with their mum, they were local and joined me to watch me paint and chat. A lovely memorable twenty minuets or so.

Very busy, sorting out the painting, sketches and photos; really enjoying myself. This hot weather is super as outside water-colour work is so possible, with the quick drying times.

Oh well must go to a BBQ, see you all soon.

We are back home again and well into the routines of life. There is something good about going on holiday and in reality being satisfied and pleased to be back home again. New Wine contacted me asking me to exhibit; that's good news and all the framing, etc etc is done. So any body who is there can see my work in the Market place, I will also be around if you want to natter.

The trip from Budapest to Prague, via Vienna and many other amazing place stunned both Liz and myself.  Painting went into overdrive, so with Liz's help ninety one drawings and paintings were produced, plus photos; when put together it will be a worthwhile body of work. Vienna was stunning, the water-colour and ink sketch above, is of one of the roads leading off the main Basilica square. My only complaint was the time factor, we only had a few hours in Vienna and nine sketches in that time was a tad rushed. Still we managed to get a good feel of the place.

A few of you keep asking me about my wire sculptures, so here is another one of meadow flowers; the flowers represented are cranesbill, daisy, thistle and speedwell, These are not serious botanical representations, but rather decorative works showing the great beauty and diversity within God's creation. For various reasons these pieces are rather tricky to photograph or scan, so please excuse this slightly iffy image, as the real construction is much more colourful and bright

I am working on a much larger work showing a beech tree with all the varied flowers around it's base. The plan is for it to be ready for New Wine in July; however although the work is at an advanced stage, a great deal more needs doing as of yet. Have no fear my ink work is not being neglected..

Europe calls and travels with my camera and ink pot can't be put off any more; so no blog for the next few weeks. See you all soon. 

Its bank holiday Monday and I am having a lazy day, or at least trying to. A few jobs to do, like popping into town, then  going round to a friends for coffee. The jobs of a more practical nature, I will not bother you with.

Last week on the last day in Somerset, it was such a lovely day that we drove over to Knightshayes Hall for the afternoon. The same sort of reaction from the staff happened again. These NT places just love artists turning up. I was welcomed with arms open wide, so to speak. As usual the staff wanted to see the finished sketch; so here it is. Thank you all.

If you do paint or sketch, whilst at the same time being a little nervous of painting out of doors in very public places, try NT sites. Working in the grounds of these places I have never had a negative reaction from staff. Working out of doors, ensuring that there will be no spillages of colours, by using such things as enclosed ink pens such as biros and not dip pens, you will receive very positive encouragement. Try it.