Cerney Wick sketch

A glorious day out in the Cotswolds, unseasonal hot sunshine and a lakeside lunch, followed by an opportunity to sketch plein air. This quaint building, originally a lock-keeper's cottage, has now been renovated and is used as a weekend retreat. A section of the canal reaches the cottage, but beyond that the route south has fallen into disuse - possibly awaiting restoration.

The Round House, Cerney Wick -
gel pens, watercolour, watercolour pencils,
gouache and oil pastel on kraft paper
- approx 6" x 8"

It's hard to believe the much smaller pen and wash sketch below was done 24 years ago, viewed from further down the tow path.

Black and white on toned paper

After very little happening over the past couple of years, our art group have finally set a programme for this year's monthly evening meetings.

Yesterday's suggestion was to use black and white (say, charcoal and pastel) on a toned background.  I utilised a couple of old plein air watercolour sketches as reference, using a kraft paper sketchbook with charcoal, Conte pencils, fine liner pen and white gel pen.

Corfe Castle, Dorset - 9" x 6"

Carding Mill Valley, Shropshire - 6" x 9"

Fabric book

In recent weeks, I have concentrated more on stitching than sketching.  I thought it was time to gather together some of the small embroidery samples I had completed over lockdown and was inspired by the work of textile artist Frances Pickering to attempt a fabric book.

The cover fabric was painted using fluid acrylics, with the addition to the closure of machine and hand stitch, collaged fabric and tissue, plus some pen drawing. The inside pages were of tea dyed calico.

Cover and closure painted calico -
size approx. 5" x 7"

"Drawing Attention"

 The latest issue of the Urban Sketchers ezine.

Online workshop

 I recently did a short online workshop with Pat Southern-Pearce (booked via Ardington School of Crafts).  Pat is well-known in the Urban Sketching community and has a very distinctive style, using mixed media materials (here she used mainly watercolour pencils and crayons, ink and gel pens).

The following two images were completed following along with Pat's demonstrations.  I used a Paperchase Kraft sketchbook (7" x 9").