Snail

Saw this snail up on the Pegsdon Hills today. I always marvel how they sometimes seem to want to climb along bramble stems high off the ground. I was just about to take a photo of it when I jogged the plant and the snail fell to the ground. Thus I had to take separate photos of the bramble and snail and then use them as a basis for the picture when I got home. Whether the snail was happy at finding itself back on terra firma rather than a foot off the ground on a prickly bramble I'll never know.

Croft Castle, Herefordshire

This is the walled garden at the National Trust property Croft Castle (4 May 2013). This has to be one of my favourite gardens and overlooking it is this lovely cottage. One day we hope to go and stay there when we have a few spare pennies as it is available as a holiday cottage.

I painted this is the same way as the previous picture of Southstone Rock. I just painted over a photograph picking up the colours from a photo and layering up the image. In some ways I feel this is a totally pointless way of working as all I am doing is basically copying a photo. It was though quite a therapeutic thing to do - like doing some cross-stitch perhaps. I don't have to think about anything creative, but just follow the pattern of the colours of the photo. That isn't quite true as I only allowed myself one main brush as I had to work out how to translate the photo into brush strokes. I kept me quiet for 6 hours or so.

Southstone Rock

Southstone Rock, Shelsley Walsh, Worcestershire

I had a childhood memory of visiting this place and wanted to try and find it again in February. I knew roughly the area where I thought it would be: in one of the wooded valleys that line the hills here. However, after walking along several footpaths I was puzzled by the lack of finding anything that resembled what I was recalling from my childhood memory. I took another path a short distance up another valley but again I couldn't match memories with reality and with what I could discern geologically on the ground. On returning home and doing some research on the Internet I realised that on this last path I had only been about a minute's walk away and if I had been looking in the right direction I would have seen what I was looking for. I was also annoyed with myself for not realising that the local church was made of rock from here and if I had looked a bit more closely at the stonework when I visited it on the same day I might have realised I was on the right trail.

A few days ago I took my daughter to find this unusual rocky outcrop in the woods. It suddenly seemed to appear out of the trees and my daughter was quite taken aback and a little apprehensive by the rather dark towering piece of geology. It was made out of tufa which is a rock formed when calcium carbonate dissolved in ground water precipitates out (often on mosses and vegetation) where a spring emerges from the hillside. The rock is light and strangely textured. Apparently monks and hermits have a history of visiting here in times gone past. I will probably make another visit sometime and explore it further when I'm on my own. It is interesting how my memories of it from 30 or more years ago have changed. I knew it was in this area but I hadn't remembered it being so big which is why I probably missed it earlier in the year. I was looking for a small dark outcrop only about 6 ft high, not something 60ft or more high - my line of sight didn't reach up into the woods above me. In the painting the small pink figure is my daughter who had just plucked up courage to cross the small wooden bridge over the stream and follow me up to the rock.

This picture was done on the iPad by overpainting a base photograph. I worked on the front elements first and then steadily moved backwards on subsequent layers. Probably around 4 hours worth of work. The style could almost be the beginnings of a photo-realist type of painting. I have always had an interest in such work and perhaps one day I will apply my mind to doing something in that style.

Rearranging things a little

Been busy the past few days: lots on at work, tidying garden and sowing seeds, painting all window ledges on house, travelling to Worcestershire, mending bikes, out on bikes with family, enjoying glorious sunny weather and not really wanting to be inside. I can't do a "picture a day" everyday. It isn't practical. And anyway, is anyone actually interested?

The next few pictures will hopefully be a selection inspired by my visit to Worcestershire. I took some photos and will see how it works using these as a basis to work from. I haven't really worked that way on the iPad before but when time is limited in far off places and the sun is so bright it should be easier to do this than work in-situ. The pictures may take a while to work on but they will appear as and when time permits over the next week or so. Then I will decide what to do next.

Our garden looks wonderful this morning with tulips, daffodils, wallflowers and amelanchier blossom givining loads of colour.

Pavilion, Wrest Park, Beds.

Visited the English Heritage property of Wrest Park today at Silsoe, Bedfordshire. It was breezy and cold and not a great day for sitting outside and drawing but I managed this sketch of the Pavilion in the gardens. Colours are a bit pale as the light was quite bright and so my iPad screen was more difficult to see.

Desert Island

I was was inspired to do this after seeing some cartoons on the web a few days ago, and just wanted something quick to draw today.

On the move

If one had a beautifully big garden it would be a good idea to have a mobile garden shed that could be moved around the garden into new places as and when required.