Beyond the sea

Hello,

Today I'm going to share a personal piece I finished this week.  I've been thinking about the idea for a while now, ever since I took a trip out to the Suffolk coast back in September.  The area is full of folk tales and I get really caught up in those when I'm out wandering there.  I love going for long walks in the countryside possibly because I live in a big busy city so I really appreciate nature when I get out in it, and also because I grew up in the countryside so I feel the need to get back to it when I can.  This particular illustration is inspired by an old tale that when fishermen die they become seagulls.  I read it whilst looking in a local museum and it began conjuring up ideas in my head.  They've had to stay there for a while whilst I was completing other work but I had time to work on it this week.  I really enjoyed drawing all the sea creatures and I'm now sketching out ideas for some new work on that theme.  I love how one thing can lead to another!

Here are a few photographs from the trip.  If you are interested the place I visited is called Dunwich.  It has suffered heavily with erosion in the past, and there are many tales of the sound of bells ringing from sunken churches on dark windy nights ;).  The gravestone shown is the last remaining from one of the churchyards that have fallen into the sea and the photo below shows the ruins are from an old monastery.

I'm hoping over Christmas I can get out and do some brisk winter walking in the countryside.  I can't wait!  

I hope you've had a good week, are wrapping up warm and enjoying the cosy time of year! :). 

Coastal walking

Hello,

So now the first week of January is well and truly over, Christmas and even New Year feel like a lifetime ago!  I've been getting back to work and life, (as has the body,) and so far I'm enjoying 2019, and I've been making lots of plans for the year ahead.
Today I am looking back though to my time post Christmas when I went for another very lovely walk at one of my favourite places, Wells-Next-the-Sea (it has the best name).  I have a lot of lovely childhood memories from there, and I love to visit.  I've drawn lots of illustrations inspired by Wells in the past and I'm sure I will continue to do so.  I especially loved drawing the bark and the seaweed.

I have taken so many photos of beach huts over the years, but it can't hurt to have a few more.  I love the pop of colour they bring no matter the weather.  

I hope you've been having a good start to 2019, and have a lovely cosy weekend :).

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you've had a good break if you've had one.  I had a lovely Christmas with my family and have come back feeling relaxed and refreshed.  It was lovely to spend some time in the countryside and go for some nice long walks.  I created the illustration below following a walk around Dunwich.  It's known for suffering badly with erosion over the years, so a lot of old buildings have ended up in the sea.  It is told that on stormy nights you can hear the bells of old churches ringing from the sea....

Just before Christmas I also visited Blickling Hall.  For Christmas they light up the gardens and house and I've wanted to go for a while now.  This year I finally made it.  It was very cold but worth the wait, it was so pretty, (luckily I had some mulled wine and a gingerbread tree to help warm me up, of course! yum) 

It felt really Christmassy.  It all feels like a long time ago now though.  I'm really excited for the year ahead though, I've come back full of new ideas and I'm excited to be back to the table drawing!
I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your break if you had one, and that Santa bought you all you hoped for!  I'll be back soon with more new work :).

Autumn time in the country

Hello,

I've just come back from a little break in Norfolk/Suffolk visiting my family.  Very nice it was too.  I was lucky to have some lovely sunny days (along with one rainy one but luckily I was inside for that).  I love those crisp autumn days and I really enjoy having a good stomp around in the fresh air.  I've come back full of ideas from my trip.
Before I went I finished this illustration of a blackberry and apple crumble, something which is definitely missing in my life, I can't remember when I last ate one :(.  It's one of those perfect colder day puddings, yum.

A few pictures from my days away.  I always like to go and visit the sea.

I love the light at this time of year in the late afternoon and the long shadows it casts.

I do have a berry obsession, I don't know what ones these are but they have the most gorgeous colour.

 This was the late afternoon sunshine, perfect.

Autumn, :).  I hope you have a lovely weekend (and get to eat some crumble!) 

Ice cream? I think so

Hello,

I hope you've had a great week.  I'm loving having bright late evenings, it really seems to lengthen the days, and it's so nice to have the doors and windows open and feel the fresh air :).
On a summery theme, I'm sharing the illustration I completed below following a coastal visit.  I really loved working on this and I'm very happy with how it turned out.  I'm pretty addicted to inks at the moment, both those that are water soluble and those that are not.  They create such wonderful colours and textures and I think they work really well with the more detailed line work.  To be honest I just love combining all different mediums, I really get stuck into the textures.

I must admit, I did have a few ice creams that looked a bit like this one the week I was away (not all on the same day I will add!)  There's nothing like an ice cream when it's a hot day at the seaside and in the UK if you are lucky enough to have a lovely warm day at the coast ice cream is essential, because lets face it those days need to be grabbed!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I have a lot of drawing/painting I'm hoping to get done, hooray!  I'll be back soon :)

New Year, home and away

Hello,

Happy New Year!  I hope 2018 will be a great one for all of us, personally I'm pretty excited to see what it will bring.  I hope if you had a break over Christmas and New Year it was a lovely one and you're all feeling well fed and happy! (I was sent back with a food parcel and I still have some left!)

I had a lovely break, I went to see my family and it was good to have a few days off, I think I needed to wind down a bit.  I got back before New Year and have been working hard since then.  When I do have a break, I find I always come back full of energy and ready to get on.  I also find a change of scene really helps my work and gives me inspiration for some new creations.  I was particularly looking forward to walking out in the countryside and by the coast.  Living in London I really appreciate being able to do this whenever I go home.  I often visit places I went to when I was a child so they feel very familiar.  This time I went walking near Cromer and then went onto the beach (I am sea obsessed, I always need to get close to it).  When I got back here I created some work inspired by the famous Cromer crab.

Here's a couple of photos from the beach, it's quite rocky but the colours of the stones are so pretty and there was some beautifully coloured seaweed.  Nature has such amazing colours.  It was pretty cold by the way, but I am a weed in the cold!

I hope you had a lovely start to the year and here's hoping 2018 will be a great one for us all! :)

A day at the beach

Hello,

A few weeks back I took a little trip back to Norfolk and visited what is possibly my favourite beach there.  As a child I used to go regularly to Wells-next-the-sea so I have a lot of happy memories from that time.  It's great to go when the it's a lovely hot day and you can paddle.  The tide goes out a long way but leaves little pools behind so you have warmish water to swim and paddle in, I love it!  The beach is huge so even if it's busy you can walk and walk and get away from it all.  There's a pine forest behind the beach huts which you can also wander through.  I've been when it's hot, when it's cold and windy too, it's just a lovely place to go to whatever the weather.
So after that little visit I made a piece of work based on it.  I spent ages working on the colours for the huts.  In reality they're all a variety of colours but I wanted them all to relate to each other and share the colouring.
Here's the finished piece

Here's some of the work in progress colour sketches.  I tend to make a lot so I can really sort colours and have all sorts of scraps with marks and textures which I then keep as they are so helpful for future work.  Then I piece it all together before working on the final.

Here's some photos of the beach, ahh it's a lovely hot day today and it would be great to be there!

I hope you're having a lovely weekend, I'm gazing out at a lovely blue sky and looking forward to another sunny day tomorrow :)