We are staying on a small camp site near to Stratford on Avon. In a small paddock next to us I discovered this old Land Rover and chickens. Walking across the fields this morning Nuala chased a deer, I told her afterwards that thousands of years as a prey animal has adapted them to escape from wolves so they are not going to have a problem outrunning a labrador that wants to lick them to death. She is now snoring loudly in the caravan ( the dog, not the deer!)
We are staying on a site on the Blenheim Palace estate, it’s a nice shady site with a big field next door to run the dogs in. Yesterday we walked in to Woodstock which is a charming little market town with lots of honey coloured stone. It isn’t too posh which is surprising being right on the doorstep of the palace.
Couldn’t resist photographing this field of sunflowers just as the sun came up this morning. I may have to paint them later.
We are away in the camper van for a few days, today at Lamborne, Berkshire. This is the view from our motorhome, the weather is glorious and we have Kites and Buzzards overhead. Tomorrow we are going to Oxford and then Blenheim Palace for a couple of nights.
Early walk to the beach with the dogs this morning, I couldn’t resist photographing the sunrise as I arrived. Now I have two damp, slightly sandy sleepy dogs.
A friend told me that she likes my paintings better when I don’t use a brush. I thought I could prove her wrong by trying the landscape Of Bournemouth gardens that I had trouble with this week. This is the result. So is it an improvement on the first version and should I leave my brushes at home? I can’t decide.
Yesterday I did a virtual,sketch walk around Dartmouth. It’s a town I have been to many times but haven’t sketched there for years so it was good to draw the boat flat and the butter walk.
This morning I returned to Venice to do a sketch, well I used a photo from our trip in 2014 when it rained a lot, but it was February and relatively quiet so we didn’t have to queue to get in anywhere. We didn’t’ get our planned trip this year because of lockdown but will try again next year if there are any airlines left to fly with!
Tuesday is portrait day at Broadstone Art Society so we have been sharing a photo to paint from. This week I supplied a photo I took some years ago in Swanage. I am afraid I don’t remember his name but he is a Coast Watch volunteer. Coast Watch are a charity who took over the old coastguard lookouts when the MCA decided the coastguard no longer needed look outs or boats and cut the budget accordingly. They do an excellent job but it sad that the government rely on charities such as Coast Watch and the RNLI to supply safety cover on the coast when almost every other country has those facilities provided by the taxpayer. Rant over!
