Late

I've been going through old sketchbooks that I'm sending to Portugal for an exhibition of sketchbooks in Almada in January 2011. I found some quick nature sketches made in late July that I'd forgotten to scan at the time... and the I've included the back of the sketchbook too, with a ticket in the pocket.

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Bric a brac

I managed to avoid accumulating more clutter for our home, but visiting friends were seduced by an odd, art-deco-ish three-tier cake stand at a market stall. The lavender added a lovely whiff of ye olde to the stall. The drawing looks flat, as if the whole thing were a printed pattern... that was unintentional!

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Train

Pencil and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Garden open day

in the next village, hub of all activity...

Markers and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

... Convicted – could we be

Of our Minutiae

The smallest Citizen that flies

Is heartier than we –

                         E.D. 

Cherries

Very busy and unusually sociable weekend and more visitors through next week. R. brought huge, firm, delicious cherries.

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Rendezvous

Yesterday was my last serious rendezvous with the dentist in London - at least in so far as the present situation demands. Now this rich and beautiful relationship (he must surely be rich, and I am trying to be beautiful) must become merely episodic. I sketched on the train, at the Hampstead branch of Carluccio's, and at the terrific exhibition New Décor at the Hayward Gallery. The next few days are going to be very busy, so I probably won't be able to post every day.

Pencil and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Railway crossing

I've always loved this little signal hut on the country route from home to Stamford, our nearest town.

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook. 

Out and about

Busy day on the trot yesterday. I had to go to London to visit my old friend, the dentist. I managed to see an exhibition and have tea with a good friend (lovely seeing you looking so well, D!)

Pencil and brush marker in small Moleskine sketchbook

Finished my small Moley

but fortunately had the bigger one with me too!

Ink pen and brush marker in Moleskine sketchbook.

With the ribbon

Ink pen and brush marker in Moleskine sketchbook.

I scanned in the bookmark by mistake, but it seemed to echo the stems of the roses - new climbers (Generous Gardener) I've just planted and already blooming. And it covers up the fact that I didn't get C's likeness. Today the weather was just so glorious. Here are some photos too:

and from lunch

Summer garden

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Bit of a bore

I know I'm a bit of a bore with this garden, but I find the changeover of blooms over the summer, first one  then another – and with each waxing and waning a different overall palette – quite overwhelmingly lovely. And no, I wasn't a clever planner: all happenstance, really.

Ink pen and brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook. 

Rambling Albertine on her way out

Pencil and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook

Marker pens and brush in Moleskine sketchbook. 

Our steps will always rhyme

Marker pens in Moleskine sketchbook. 

Cuddle (take 2)

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook, and pencil on the last page.


I was inspired by the mutual embrace the other day. Fátima scoops Possum up, and Possum just stays put, like a fur doll, very funny. Drew these from photos I took - you can see that, especially in the first spread. There's a quality of abstraction you get when drawing from photos that is usually absent (at least for me) when drawing from direct observation. 

Churchyard

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Soccer fever?

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook

Houses on the outskirts of the next village.

Driving towards the storm

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook

Turning

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook

The flowering seasons are so short! The beautiful, pink blossomed weigela is about to turn, so tried to capture the sense of its abundance on our deck before it disappears.

Abstract expressionism of the shadow trees

Sunny again today. I sat under an apple tree to draw the silhouette of hanging branches of the ash tree at the bottom of the garden. No luck. Trees are the hardest thing - to know how to tell the wood from, and so on. How much detail in, how much out. Having wasted a few precious Moleskine pages, I noticed that the pages of the sketchbook itself were dappled and marked by the shadows of the swaying branches above me. I very quickly traced the movements the shadow trees were making on the sketchbook pages.

And then finally, I drew the branches again, this time under the influence of these shadow trees. Not much to write home about, but here it is!

All are brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

Still here

Pencil and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook

Frail, geriatric, sweetest hound