Catching up!

This year I am finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with regularly posting on social media, so I will probably carry on" batch" posting, for the summer months at least.

A perfect day to visit the local bluebell woods, followed by an al fresco lunch

at Blake's Kitchen and a stroll around the Coleshill Estate (National Trust)

23.4.26

Sitting in the stone circle at Avebury with a view of

this house on the High Street

A thatched cottage overlooking the churchyard in Avebury

Another good day for an Urban Sketchers outing.

(Both sketches done on tea-dyed wallpaper lining.)

2.5.26

 

A fabulous week in Venice - lots of walking, sightseeing etc.,

 but not much opportunity for sketching.  However, I was able

to catch up later with the help of my photos.

9-16.6.26

 Fresh Air Sculpture biennial event in the impressive gardens of 
The Old Rectory at Quenington, near Cirencester.
19.6.26

Another array of sculptures in the beautiful setting of Miserden gardens.

1.7.26

A Swindon Urban Sketchers meet-up at one of the local churches.
4.7.26

A viewing of the Fosseway Artists exhibition in the Village Hall,
a picnic by the river, then setting up on the village green
to sketch this lovely Cotswold stone house.
22.7.26

Our Urban Sketchers group met up in The Lawns - a vast open space in town which

was once part of the 15th century Manor of Swindon.  The manor house has long gone,

but the Ice House, built in the late 1700's, remains, although now blocked up.

The second sketch is a view to the north east of the town.

1.8.26

 

An Exhibition in Marlborough, Wiltshire UK

 

A new sketchbook for 2026!

 

8" x 6" watercolour sketchbook with
handpainted and embroidered cover

A friend makes beautiful, personalised, hand-bound sketchbooks - a very welcome Christmas gift, ready for the following year's sketching trips.

My sketches so far.  In a couple of cases it was not convenient to sketch on site, either due to the weather or the location, in which case a photo was used as reference at the end of the day.

3.1.26 Too cold to linger outside.  This was sketched and painted
 from the relative comfort of an empty office building

4.2.26 Burford High Street - a bit chilly and blustery
so this was sketched later from a snapshot

7.2.26 An Urban Sketchers meeting in the local Museum and 
Art Gallery - a detail from
"The Turnip Harvest" by Harold Dearden (1888-1969)

14.2.26 The Summer House in the grounds of Newark Park
(National Trust property in Gloucestershire).  Very busy, with lots 
of visitors, snowdrops galore, and two artists showing,
 their work in the house -
 Jo Biggadike aka Ambling Press (lino and collagraph prints)
and Jasmin Jones (watercolour and mixed media)

18.2.26  A sunny walk before lunch at the Green Dragon Inn, Cockleford.
Warm enough to sit outside afterwards and sketch the entrance 
to the pub.

4.3.26 A very foggy start to the day, but brilliant sunshine
by the time we reached Slimbridge Wetland Centre on the
Severn Estuary.  Famous for its influx of Bewick swans in 
the winter, but also used by thousands of other water birds and
waders throughout the year.  A large area to cover and lots to see -
I was attracted to this replica Arctic tundra hut similar to that
which would have been used by researchers studying the
 decline of Bewick swans and other birds from that region..

7.3.26  A couple of hours in the local shopping centre
with Urban Sketchers group.

The latest Urban Sketchers zine

The latest Drawing Attention issue.

Textile Gallery update

 I have added a few more images of textile items I have completed over the last few months.  These are shown in the Pages section.

A slow stitched scroll using eco dyed cottons

Quick sketches

On the phone

Brunel Statue and random figures

Community Gardens

 
Not much in the way of outdoor sketching recently as the weather getting cooler.

More figure drawing

 

A couple of my sketches from a figure drawing session which took place alongside a mural painting event on the streets of Swindon.

3 minutes

5 minutes

5 minutes