Delamere Forest Walk

P and I went for a walk through Delamere Forest and the surrounding countryside yesterday. It was a beautiful walk and when the sun hit us it was lovely and warm. Spring is almost here!

I also bought some more pastels on Saturday so I could finish off my beach painting with some vibrant turquoises and aquas. There's nothing better than unwrapping new pastels from their brown paper bag!

Just about finished... I've added the pastel and it has given the painting much more depth.

Can you tell what it is yet? ;-) - Acrylic Underpainting

Well it's snowing outside so I decided to transport myself back to summer. I started painting this gorgeous beach and within 10 minutes felt warm, happy and carefree.

This is an acrylic underpainting on Wallis Paper (it literally feel like very fine sandpaper but is archival - it's primarily for painting with pastels - you have to watch your nails and fingertips!). I'm going to use this as a base for my pastel painting.

You can get some lovely contrasts between the soft blends of the acrylic and the more broken colour of the pastels on top when you work this way. The sandpaper can hold many layers of pastel so a very rich surface can be built up.

Congratulations P!!

Spread the Word

The 2nd Worldwide SketchCrawl Day is coming up. Sunday 6th March.

Basically what you do is get your sketching kit together (in my case, sketchbook, pen, brush and water, warm coat, big scarf, furry hat and gloves, chocolate!) and you document your day as best you can using drawings.

It doesn't matter how well you can draw, it's the taking part that counts. And take it from me, it really is good fun, plus you meet people you'd never otherwise meet (great when you're usually isolated all day like me.)

So, wherever you are in the world - why not have a go.

I'm so proud!!!

I felt so proud when I read the email that I actually cried.



P's exam results were all laid out on the page. After all that he said about knowing that he'd failed he's only gone and passed all 3 exams!!! P is now fully qualified!!



Yipppeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!



Well done P. I love you!

Marbling Mad

This is what I've been getting up to today. I bought a marbling kit. I've got some very happy memories of marbling paper at primary school. We would make our own 'best books' using the marbling for the cover. They looked really professional! Anyway... I got a bit carried away and there are sheets of paper drying all over the bathroom. God knows what I'm going to use them all for.