A bright new year and The Colours of Paisley

Wishing all of my blog followers a bright new year.

I have a few paintings I couldn't show before Christmas, so I'm starting the New Year off with those.
The first is a painting of the most beautifully mannered, friendly Rottweiler I've met.

The Colours of Paisley

Painted on Saunders Waterford 140lb rough paper, using Winsor & Newton paints.

Last painting of the Old Year, on to the New!

If you've been following my personal blog HERE you will know that we've moved to the beautiful Kingdom of Fife in Scotland - moving further into the countryside was a long cherished dream of mine. I'm grateful that 2015 brought that opportunity to me.

We bought a house that needed a little work.
The first work was to install a new kitchen - and what will a new kitchen need? Apart from the obvious, new artwork!

Wrapping paper Paddy from the previous post was the first, this new painting of a field with poppies is the next.

That's my last painting of 2015 - on to 2016; where my hope is to be out more in this beautiful countryside, to paint more, sketch more and to write more too!

Here's to 2016 - may it be a great one for you.

Christmas card and wishes

Good morning friends!

Time seems to be hurtling towards Christmas.. and so today I thought I'd share a card with you, to wish you all a very merry Christmas.
I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Christmas Card 2015

Christmas Party at Holly Tree Farm

Hello friends!

I had some free time and decided to have a little fun with paint.
The result - this...

Christmas Party at Holly Tree Farm 

on Bockingford Not 140gm

Christmas Eve is a week today, so I'm pretty sure this will be my last blog post before Christmas. 

Wish you all the joy of the season. Look forward to seeing you again next year.

Have fun. God bless.

A new year .... and new beginnings!

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2014, full of joy and creativity.

For my first post of the year, I want to show you someone else's work!
A friend expressed an interest in learning how to paint in watercolour, so she came over for an afternoon teaching session, with her sister, who didn't want to paint, but loves looking at art.

My friend wanted to paint a giraffe, so I suggested we draw a small one and a larger one. That way we could practice on the small, before it got transferred to the large.

Here is her practice effort

and this is second effort, as far as we had it finished on the day. I think it's going to be beautiful.

While the sisters were waiting for the background washes to dry, I painted a quick snow scene for the one who doesn't paint - as a memento of the day.
It's only small, 7" x 10"

Signpost

I hope the New Year brings you joy, the chance to try something new - and the chance to shine. God bless.

Happy New Year

Happy new year, everyone!

Hope this year gives you health and happiness .

These are a couple of painted sketches I did yesterday.

The painting bug rarely leaves me, though today is dedicated to clearing up the house, so that we can have a restful day tomorrow, before the return to work Tuesday.

Whatever you're starting off your new year with, I hope you have a great one!

New Year's Eve and Arty things..

Today is New Year's Eve, and a traditional time for making resolutions.

Now I've never been one for Resolutions, but in my art there are a few things I'd like to do.

1) I'd like to paint more and compute less.
To that end, I'm only going to publish on my blog 3 days rather than 7 days a week.
The new days will be Mon, Wed, Fri.

2) I received a 3 CD watercolour landscape course this Christmas.
I'd like to have painted every demo on that course by next year.

3) With some of the most recent paintings I have done, I have learned the importance of being bold and making stronger shadows in my style of painting. I want to improve on those this year.

How about you? Is there anything you want to tackle in the new year, or anything you want to improve?

And finally, would like to wish all my readers a happy and healthy 2011 .