We were in the same ‘group’ on the graphic design course at Manchester School of Art, which is what it was called back then before ‘people’ got hold of it, changed it to a polytechnic and then morphed it into part of Manchester Metropolitan University. Peter Green was one of eight of us. Two groups of four in the illustration department. Peter, Ed, Roy and Terry, then me, Julia, Jenny and Diane, and there was another girl who popped in now and again seemingly just to put her feet up, gossip and smoke. As I recall she wore knee high … Continue reading Shooting the breeze by the river.

A walk through the woods yesterday, and my good friend Mike and I came across this dancer in the woods. Stepping through the wild garlic on tiptoe, head held back in a pose transfixed. A magnificent day out. Today is spent in recovery, as my glowing feet would probably be visible from Artemis. It’s probably all that dancing I do as well. Continue reading Dancer in the Woods

My bird recognition software on my phone went into meltdown on a terrific afternoon on the top of the Cotswolds. It heard 23 species of birds, including a Willow Warbler, but excluding the fine Red Kite, who was keeping his beak shut whilst he swirled over us, checking out if we might be a healthy snack. What a brilliant afternoon in every respect, the constant change of light with the scudding clouds. Lots of material to draw and paint in the days to come. One of the things I like about this sort of thing is the opportunity to share … Continue reading Some day!

I recently heard of the death of Paul Sample, one of the country’s finest cartoon illustrators. He made his passion for motorbikes part of his story, drawing Ogri, his biking character, for years. Why not make your living drawing what you like most? Clever idea. He was also responsible for many book jackets, in particular the paperback covers for Tom Sharpe’s books, which were, to my mind, one of the pinnacles in a fine career at the nib! In no part thanks also to the Art Director who commissioned him back then: Gary Day Ellison. I never met Paul, but … Continue reading Paul Sample: Top of the League

That area of the duvet that stays warm when you get up to make a cup of tea in the morning. Climbing back into bed with the tea handy, it’s always good to find some residual ‘down ampney’. Somehow, if it has dissipated completely the day does not get off to a good start, and the tea seems less than satisfactory. The area of Down Ampney is close to lakes and waterways. On a Spring morning, pockets of warm, damp air can cling to the land in a sort of mist. This dissipates after a relatively short time. Sometimes it … Continue reading Down Ampney

It knocked out the fuse; two slices of Hot Cross bun did for it. Standard flavour bun, none of your caramel and chocolate abominations that are available these days. We’ve not had the thing for a year, and the toaster is toast. Miffed about it, I found the receipt and emailed the supplier/manufacturer. This generated an email requiring me to supply all the details of the toaster, plus details about myself. Emails went back and forth at regular intervals, and I was asked to test the toaster again, despite my nervousness, to see if it would again knock out the … Continue reading Toasted

Yesterday, a walk quite close to Gloucester and Cheltenham at Witcombe, or Great Witcombe to be exact. With my good friend Robin, we wandered around the reservoirs, then gradually walked up the hills of the Cotswold escarpment behind on a day well worth waiting for. Clear blue skies and warm enough to increase our intake of Vitamin D. My little bird song recognition app going bonkers as the birds were enjoying the sun too. At the top of the hill, we join the Cotswold Way, meeting a couple of pleasant ladies, one of whom asked us, ” What are you … Continue reading Great Witcombe, yes it was.

One of those phrases that call centre people use that generally conjures up an odd image. This one is from my archives. Have a good week. Continue reading Bear with…

This is industrial Gloucester looking over the canal, the photograph taken quite a few years ago now. I’ve converted it to black and white and will be doing a charcoal drawing first to plan it out. The next one is an even older photograph that I have a fancy to paint sometime.I’ll draw this too before the brushes make an appearance. This is in South West France. Continue reading Candidates for painting…

One of a series of drawings before I dip into painting again. I find that doing the drawing sorts of prints the image into the grey matter, parking itself next to thoughts of ‘Where did I put those socks?’. I wonder if Cezanne had similar thoughts; he was reputed to have red socks, I think. Most of the drawings are black and white, but when doing this one, a yellow pastel was hanging around doing nothing. Continue reading Buttercup Field

Preparatory drawing for a painting. It seems to help me when I do a simple charcoal drawing before I commit to paint. At least with something like this, there’s little chance of being overdrawn, tell that to the bank manager. Continue reading The River Coln in Charcoal