Peace

Ah; the lull.  I am not going to pretend the lead-up to Christmas has been exceptionally hectic.  In fact, this year it has been a doddle, what with the cottages all booked out on long term bookings (no decorations for me to put up or last-minute laundry).  With the exception, that is,  of a truly life-shortening episode on Friday when I received an e mail telling me a HUGE party of people were arriving that day and of which I knew NOTHING.  (No booking form had been sent).

The folk in Beech Lodge have a little pug-like dog who is very friendly.  I met her and her owner walking through the wood.  We have plenty of foxes running around here but it turns out they are not afraid of the little pug and one chased her!  I have never heard of that and wish a fox would come out to see me.

Mark gave me a fabulous set of Derwent pencils.  Not having used so of them before I gave one of their examples a try - and it was a fox, so seemed fitting.  The 'drawing' series are so smooth they almost have the effect of a pastel.  This picture (above) is showing larger than the original which has been done on one of those tiny moleskines.

Yes, I have been trying them out with other images too.

Sometimes I find the best way to really see a picture is to get inside it and draw it.

Lolling about comes all too easily to me but I have also been gearing up to showcase the next idea I have for the new year.

 

I love the sun painting done earlier this year and after seeing a linear display space had the idea of painting a series of similar images, but with the sun heading further toward the horizon as in a cartoon strip.

It is going to be a lot of work as the finer detail (as above) takes quite a while and I find the concentration makes my eyes tire very quickly.

After the different colours of the background trees, it is the foreground branches and twigs which can take an age as they stretch their near-silhouetted forms across the tops of the canvas.

I guess I am to be going a little cross-eyed this week.