Message

Came across this interesting quote today: 'The way to find your message is to paint the things you're afraid others won't like or understand'. (creativebloq.com)

Robin

Wheelbarrow, Clun

I have been struggling with this picture for several weeks. I have sat down at several lunchtimes and tried to get this going but have either been distracted by other things or just not quite known what to do with it. The scene was taken from a photo I took in the village of Clun in Shropshire a few weeks ago. In the end I just sat down and filled in a few basic lines and decided to leave it at that. I don't like leaving things unfinished and now I feel I can move on to something else.

Selfie

This is me having walked up an incredibly steep hillside from Obley up onto Black Hill recently. It was windy, cold and wet! This is one of my favourite parts of the countryside around Clun.

Disc Harrow

I found this old MF26 disc harrow just inside a gateway on a hill near Clun a couple of weeks ago. I think it had been there for a few years or so but it wasn't overgrown with brambles. I'm not sure if a small harrow like this with a width of only about 6 ft would be economical to use these days. It may well have been used within the cultivated field in which I found it or it may have just been dumped here having been used for some other purpose - such as blocking the gateway (as old heavy equipment is often used for). I liked the red paint that was still quite vibrant amidst the rusty browns and wanted to experiment with finding an interesting composition within its structure that I would enjoy painting.

Sowdley Wood, Clunton

This JCB had been working all day recently up on the hill below Clunton in south Shropshire.  When the driver had gone home I took a couple of photos of the machine and then later worked them up into this sketch. All that I am basically doing is working over a photo on the iPad which is a technique I enjoy. It does produce an almost photo realistic image even though the paintwork is quite basic. It has enabled me to more quickly develop a style of working that I can apply to other images I use in my day job where I am having to create Christmas themed illustrations from scratch.

The JCB had been tidying up the left over branches and wood left after a mecahnical tree felling machine had cleared the former conifer plantation of timber. All the loose material was being piled up into large windrows across the hillside in between which new saplings could be planted on the cleared ground. The remaining tree stumps are left in the ground to rot away naturally.

Bookshop

Someone reading in a Hay-on-Wye bookshop.