Sketching in St. Ives, UK - Part one

Posted: February 14, 2019

As a sneak preview of the techniques I'll be teaching in May of 2019 at Chapel Cottage Studio in Abergavenny. I'm posting examples from my travels in Bristol, London, Abergavenny, Swansea, St. Ives and the little stops between. I'm looking forward to expanding my community of friends and artists during my stay this spring.  I'll be traveling to Liverpool and several other new places as well as returning to cities, towns and villages I've visited before. 

During my 2018 trip:

My first glimpse of St. Ives was from a small parking lot high above an expansive beach populated with bright swim suits, cabanas, umbrellas and towels.  I couldn't resist a quick sketch, using the stone wall as a plein air studio table.

The ink sketch in the upper left corner was done on the train from London to Newport.

 Direct watercolour technique is great for quick sketches and for capturing the essence of the...

January 30, 2019

Yesterday I treated myself to meditative sketching instead of drawing train seats, tops of a heads bent over cell phones and luggage rails.

My destination in NYC was the Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.  Fortunately, the Hilma af Klint exhibition is still on. I was thrilled by her work once again.

Mapplethorpe's photographs, large gelatin silver prints, took my breath away. His composition and design is impeccable and his complex interweaving of story, documentation, views on society and religion inspired me to dig so much deeper into my own thoughts, visions and attitudes.