Cat & the Singer

A friend of mine was left a house recently by an old lady; the house was full of old furniture, probably none of it worth very much, but the only thing to take my eye was this old Singer Treadle Machine, which is still in working order. Oh what memories it brought back! My mother was a tailoress and had a workshop at the back of our house. A workshop is a bit of an exaggeration, it was the garden shed converted, but it served its purpose. I can still see my Mum furiously pedalling the treadle, turning out all kinds of wonders in cloth.

As you can see, one of my cats has taken a fancy to it as a perch, or watch station, or maybe its just somewhere off the ground to sleep.

Sketches with black pen

Seems ages since I posted anything, haven’t been painting much but have really got into sketching with a black pen, also it allows me to be a couch potato and still feel as though I’m doing something.Did this the other night while chilling with a glass of red, tried to get the impression of the light from the lamp, but didn’t get it as well as I would have liked.

Did this one last night, again with a glass of red in the other hand. Found the image on the back of an old magazine I found amongst my books, it’s an advert for Barbour jackets, and it just appealed to me, although I don’t think I’d get dressed up like this to go sketching.

Mallards

Another discarded painting I found while rooting around in my studio. A bit stylized but with maybe a bit more colour in the sky could be revitalized. The female mallard needs a bit of work , she appears to be on the water as opposed to in the water.

Did this sketch of an immature Grey Heron,sitting on a small boat in Ballycotton Harbour. It flew away before I had the time to get all the colour  down, so will put some watercolour on and see how it looks.

Teddy

Still suffering from painters block, but making myself sketch everyday, at least today I put colour in the sketch, thats a start !

This fella belongs to my wife and lives on top of the radio/cd player, I thought he must be very bored sitting in the same place everyday, so I let him sit on the window sill while I sketched him. I used a black ballpoint and then coloured pencil. My wife has already claimed the sketch for next years Christmas card, she’s really thinking ahead!

Foxy Lady

I first showed this on the blog 3 years ago, when to be honest ,only about two people in the world knew I had a blog. Recently refound it, stashed along with a few watercolours and other miscellaneous items.

Its coloured pencil on black canford paper, I remember at the time that it seemed to take forever to build up the colour and at the end I wasn’t very happy with the result. Looking at it afresh I don’t think its so bad, but if I did it again or something similar, I think I would maybe use mixed media, maybe acrylic and coloured pencil.

Still can’t seem to get down to painting, so am making myself sketch, so that I am doing something. Did this from a photo I took a couple of years ago, when a very nice man let me wander round his farmyard with my camera.

Ordinary things

Suffering from painters block again, this is becoming a pain.Have so many unfinished paintings, and seem to be at a total loss as to how to fix them. Have been making myself sketch everyday, just ordinary things around me, so at least I’m doing something, hopefully it will lead to picking up a brush.

I used a black biro for these sketches, I really like the effects you can get with them, I would usually use a pencil, but I think a pen makes you braver.