Tilly

Meet my collie Tilly. She is an old lady now, but refuses to believe it and still enjoys her walks, the longer the better, come rain, shine, snow, hail or anything else nature can throw at us.

When demonstrating at Hestercombe Gardens I decided to use her as my model. (using a photo of course as she would never sit still long enough).

I used Derwent water-soluble pencils on Derwent's new watercolour paper and I can say that I really do like it. It is sturdy and nice and smooth with very little tooth but takes pencil beautifully. It also takes erasing and indenting well and will take fair bit of  bashing about. It will definitely become part of my stable of supports.

Size: A4

Red dahlia

This is a little experiment I did yesterday. Over the years I have accumulated a number of canvases of various sizes, always intending to do some acrylic painting....needless to say I never got around to it. I decided to use one of the smaller canvases to see what I could do with coloured pencil and solvent. Found a lovely photo of a beautiful red dahlia and proceeded to play (which makes a nice change),

Here is the result, which I quite like.

Size: 5" x 7"

Materials: Prismacolour pencils dissolved with Low odour solvent on canvas.

 I have carried the image around the edges.

Hestercombe exhibition

Well, my exhibition is up and has been running for a week now. I have had lots of very positive and encouraging feedback. I was demonstrating last Sunday from 11am until after lunch.   Lots of people came to peek over my shoulder and make kind comments.

I will be there again this Saturday and Sunday (as long as it is not tipping it down), so if you are in the area please do come in and have a chat. I have some cards and mounted photo-prints for sale while I am there. (Free entry to the restaurant, shop and gallery area).

'Inscrutable' For Sale at Hestercombe

Give a dog a home!

I found this on Sue Clinker's blog and thought it deserved to be shown again, so thank you Sue. It will bring a lump to your throat and may even make you shed a tear. I make no apologies. These chaps need all the help they can get.

Sunlit Hare

This is the last one for my exhibition, which will be at Hestercombe Gardens, Taunton for three weeks from June 18th. 

This is a bit of a departure from my usual detailed work, but I like the colours and looser style....I might persue it a bit more in the future.

Leopard - 'Concentration'

I started this one a very long time ago and always meant to get around to finishing it. My upcoming exhibition got me motivated and here it is.

Measures around 14" x 16" using pastels -Derwent and Faber Castell Pitt pencils and some softer sticks for the background. Support is maize coloured Clairfontein Pastelmatt.

'Heavyweight' on Derwent's watercolour pad

I am really chuffed to see my Rhino painting 'Heavyweight' used on the new Derwent range of watercolour papers. It was done using their new (well, relatively new) range of water-soluble pencils. I am really pleased with how it looks.