Today the art group visited Shillingstone House courtesy of Lady Caroline Salt. We had the run of the gardens and an oil painting tutorial from the brilliant Rob Adams. I chose to paint one of the garden cottages in watercolour but it made me want to give oils a try soon.

A couple of pages from yesterday morning in Kimmeridge. I tried dividing one page into smaller boxes so I could try some quick sketches of things happening around me. It seemed to work so I will try that again.

I spent a happy morning with the art group painting around Kimmeridge. The sun shone and the views were magnificent. I someone must have reversed into the Clavell tower because I am sure it didn’t lean before! The tower was built in 1830 and in 2006 had to be moved 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff edge by dismantling it, labelling and numbering all the stones and rebuilding it in a safer location.

Another painting from the New Forest Folk Festival. My friends are used to me drawing and painting all the time so they just ignore me which means I can paint them when they are concentrating on the music.

I spent the morning at Morton gardens with PEDAS. They had sculptures in the garden as part of Dorset Arts Week and the sun shone! It was a great morning and I have seen some lovely paintings done by other members of the group. The large brown structure is made of wicker, I forgot to look at the details so I can’t credit the artist or remember what it was called!

I have had this web site for two years and am embarrassed to report that I have only just discovered where I can see all your lovely comments! So sincere apologies for apparently ignoring you, I will do better from now on. I wonder what else I am missing?

When I was a child we used to have family jigsaw puzzles, one of them was Primavera by Botticelli and it has since been one of my favourite classical paintings. This is my pen and wash version of the three graces from Primavera.

In my Christmas stocking was a nice blue Dryden fountain pen. Here are a few sketches to try it out. The ink is water soluble so I have to be careful adding watercolour. I will look into using a non soluble ink but I don’t want to clog it up.

A little portrait practice in charcoal today.inspired by a visit to the Russel Cotes museum in Bournemouth. They have an exhibition called “Art in lockdown” consisting of paintings from the archives that are relevant to the situation we find ourselves in at present. There are some wonderful portraits in the exhibition and on. Permanent display in the museum, most of them better than mine!