Watercolour Trees and John Blockley

I decided to go a bit colourful and unrealistic with these watercolour trees but I think they look quite nice.

A pen and ink group of very well dressed ladies wearing some rather unusual hats.

I thought you might like to see what I am sketching at the moment. I love peeking into other peoples' sketchbooks. A lot of my sketches never actually make it to finished drawings and sometimes the ones that do are completely unrecognisable from the original sketch. I decided to stick to a gold and magenta colour palette with these. It is a combination that I think looks really good together.

An attempt at a watercolour tree sketch "a la John Blockley".

These gorgeously colourful textile pieces are by the very talented Sherrill Kahn. I love her fabric doll necklaces which have a wonderful graphic and native look to them. Sherrill is another multi-talented craftswoman who paints, weaves, quilts, beads, sews, knits, crochets and draws. Wouldn't it be lovely to do all that, but where does she find the time? I have a couple of her books and they are a delight. You may need to click on the pictures to enlarge them to get the full details.

The images below are the work of the late and much lamented watercolourist John Blockley. I love the way he rendered his trees with a watercolour wash roughly tree shaped and then the branches stroked in. I would have loved to have seen him working. His pictures are full of texture and beautifully subtle colour.

We have had some very cold (for the UK) weather for the past three weeks. Nothing in comparison to the weather some of you are getting of course, but everything is relative isn't it? What we have to put up with in the freezing tootsies department we make up for in the beauty of the countryside. A hoar frost which covers the trees in white crystals is utterly stunning, to my mind anyway. It is almost more beautiful than pristine snow, and we have had quite a few to admire recently. Unfortunately, the downside has been pavements and roads like skating rinks. I had to assist several women in picking up a poor elderly lady who had lost her footing the other day, and she was far from the only one. Makes me wonder whether we should all have shoes with spikes on the soles in winter. There would be far fewer people in A & E departments with fractured limbs. Like everything in life there is an upside and a downside - keeps the balance though!

My artist this week is no longer with us but he has left some wonderful art to remind us that he was here. He is the well known watercolourist John Blockley.When I first started drawing and painting back in 1990ish I found his books on watercolour landscapes a wonderful source of inspiration. A lot of his work is of the Cotswold area of England and I had found someone who also loved trees, if his paintings are anything to go by. His work was his personal view and feelings about a place, rather than a literal representation and he also produced more abstract work. I have only posted images of the more realistic work as I am not really a fan of abstraction in art. I love his pencil sketches and the shapes of his trees. I tried very hard to emulate his style back in the 90's before realising that I had to find my own. I treasure his books that I own though and often browse through them. I wish I had his talent with landscape. Some of his work can be found here at the Manor House Gallery site and elsewhere on the web if you type his name in a search engine.

Flora/Chloris and Sarah Young

This is one of my new Christmas card designs. I haven't used this old gold colour for a background before but I really like it. Not traditionally Christmas looking but I think it works with the white deer.

This is Chloris - the first of my flower goddess drawings. I loved doing that hair. She looks better in the enlarged version.

This is a page from my new sketchbook. Sorry about the quality of the photo but it has been VERY dark here today.

This is Flora - the second flower goddess. She is very stylised but I am pleased with how she turned out.

This is a gorgeous Christmas card by Judi Trevorrow. It is designed for Milkwood Publishing and you can find their website here. They have some beautiful designs and great artists. I bought a large selection of their cards when I was on holiday in Cornwall a couple of years ago.

Lovely soft pastels in this angelic card by Sarah Summers

This is a great sheepy card by Anuk Naumann. Watercolour at its best.

Petra Borner Christmas Card. So beautiful and graphic. I love all her work.

The following images are all the work of the highly talented artist and printmaker Sarah Young.

When I get a drawing theme in my head it is very hard to shift and I tend to overdo it sometimes. I was leafing through a library book the other day and I spotted a painting of Flora, the mythological Roman goddess of flowers and spring. Her Greek counterpart was Chloris (love that name). Wasn't there a perfume called Chloris once? If there wasn't, there should have been. It is a perfect name for a flowery perfume. Anyway, I digress. I decided that a female portrait with flowers in the hair was a perfect theme for the run up to Christmas...... don't ask. I ended up with quite a batch of Flora/Chloris artwork so I chose the two I liked best to post in the blog this week. I hope you like them.

Harking back to last week's blog and my mention of my sketchbooks. Well I have been a very good artist and used my lovely new sketchbook properly without first drawing on scrap paper. I have gone a bit more illustrative and quirky for my sketches but found them very enjoyable. Quirky is good. When I produce a sketch I dislike, I then tend to do another on a little piece of scrap paper to paste in the sketchbook and cover up the unwanted one. Back to sketches on scraps of paper...I know, I know...!

My featured artist this week is the wonderful English artist and printmaker Sarah Young. She lives on the South Coast of England and is very well known in the art world for her beautiful work in various media. Her work is multifaceted but is very strong on myth and narrative. Not only does she paint, but she also produces monoprints, collographs, linocuts and silk screens and has had work published. She has also added some wonderful dolls to her repertoire. A multi-talented lady. She has a wonderful and extensive website here hosted by Jon Tutton who works with Sarah. Jon also co-produces a very interesting art blog called madeuk which is well worth a look. Hope you enjoy the links.

My New Scarf and My New Computer

This is Mitch wearing my lovely new scarf which I won in Phyllis's giveaway on her blog Spin, Knit and Life. Very warm and toasty....I am not sure if Mitch will hand it back.

I had to wear gymslips very like these when I attended primary school many years ago. The only difference was that mine had a belt around the middle so I resembled a sack of potatoes. This piece is called "First Day at School". The hats are pure fabrication of course.

This is a rough sketched illustration which I have coloured digitally, again roughly. She is definitely growing on me. I love the palatte of this image and they are all CMYK colours so they won't look different when printed.

Another sketchbook bird, this one is also in fibre tipped pen colours.

I originally designed this for a needlepoint I was planning but I never actually got around to doing it. One of these days perhaps....! It is watercolour at the moment but I may decide to digitalise it.

A very fancy red sketchbook bird. I have used fibre tipped pens on this one.

This is one of my favourite sun designs and I use it a lot in various pictures.

The following images are all the artwork of English pen and ink artist Seren Bell.

I received a lovely prezzie in the post the other day. I had won a hand knitted scarf on Phyllis's blog Spin,Knit, and Life. She had a giveaway and I was one of two winners. Being a non-knitter I received the already knitted item. It arrived this week and it is a beautiful navy blue wool scarf. It came with instructions on ways to wear it - thank you very much Phyllis. I love it and I will enjoy wearing it this autumn/winter. I have always been a "scarf" person. I know I have posted pictures of my old ted "Mitch" wearing it but I hate photos of myself and Mitch is much better looking. I was given him when I was 9 years old and frightened of the dark. Needless to say, he didn't help much, but he is rather lovely, if a trifle dirty and threadbare (no pun intended). So once again thanks very much Phyllis.

My main news this week is that I am now the proud owner of a couple of large boxes. What is interesting about that I hear you say. Well it is what is in the boxes that counts. It is a brand, spanking new computer with Windows Vista to replace my old XP. The screen is 22 inches instead of the tiny one I am using at the moment. I really won't know myself when it is all installed. Thanks to my brother and his partner, Lesley for sorting it out for me... and hopefully they will also oversee the installation and transfer of all my stuff onto the new model. I can't wait. It is by way of being all of my Christmas and birthday presents for the rest of my life.....!!!

My artwork this week is more illustrative. I have always been a fan of illustrations, particularly contemporary, so I thought I would start drawing some myself. I have been checking out the illustration sites on Flickr and there is so much fantastic stuff on there. I also own a couple of very large illustration tomes which are endlessly inspiring. I borrowed a few library books with images of 1950s designs for wall paper and curtains. I love the 1950s era for design. The colours are great and the artwork itself is very distinctive. So watch out for a few retro pieces from me in the coming weeks.

My featured artist this week is Seren Bell. She is an English artist who specialises in pen and ink with coloured pencil. Her chosen subjects are usually rural scenes and especially sheep. Her style is totally different from Caroline Ireland in last week's post, as her palatte is much more subdued and natural looking. I love her work. Never have sheep and lambs looked so interesting. She can be found on the internet here and here.

Now I am off to make room for that new computer.....!