Hello! And a very warm welcome to the homepage of my website – woohoo! Look out for my art – drawings and etchings, some photographs and illustrated blogs. Throw in a spot of nature and gardening with a sprinkling of ideas and inspirations too. I hope you’ll find something of interest!
There will be photos and writing and blogging and art. [And fortuitous rhyming straight from the heart!] If you browse My blog section, there’s all kinds of musings; some drawings, adventures; all manner of choosings.
(It’s time to put a stop to this rhyme, lets save it for another time)!
It may be an update on progress with a drawing, a special something from the garden, perhaps an adventure in the campervan or the very latest with my eyesight!
There are tabs above, so you can be specific in what you want to find (and leave behind) or have a browse below at the Blogs and my Portfolio.
Latest from my Blog:
Mother’s Day Flowers
A wee test, to see if I can remember how things work here – and to share these lovely flowers! A welcome surprise from Ronan, they arrived in the post, and lasted well over a
Craggy Clamber and Sketching in Cumbria
This spectacular place was a hop, skip and a clamber up from our Cumbrian campsite! A beautiful spot on top of the world, where all we could hear was the melodic sound of skylark, wren,
Down by the Riverside
Last summer, my sketching friend Sharon and I, on deliberating where to go, took a short walk down to the river that runs through Dumfries town! We shifted some discarded cans out the way and
A Cyclamen re-Cycled
A few months ago, when the ground wasn’t frozen solid, my lovely friend Kerry and I went on a plant hunt. I bought and potted-on a six pack of cyclamen. Not too long after that,
Cornea Transplant Stitches – My Painting Progression
Stitch Removal – a zig zag story Today marks four years since my full cornea transplant (Penetrating Keratoplasty due to advanced Keratoconus). A time where I know my donor family will be remembering the life
Beaky Blackbird’s New Beak
Poor Beaky Blackbird lost his beak many years ago in an apologetic accident. I’d bought him from a Highland artist in times gone by and took the breaking of the beak hard. Adhesives of various
Macrame Muddlings
Tidying up my little plant garden around my kitchen sink, I decided that (one of) my spider plant babies would appreciate being hung! Tabitha (son Ronan’s girlfriend) had inspired me with a menagerie of macrame,
Decorating – Nature Does It So Much Better
The freezing frosty weather draped the gorse in visible (no longer invisible) natural decorations. A magnificent masterpiece surpassing any modern bebaubled flashy flashy Christmas tree… As the house was freezing cold, I decided to head outside
Here’s My Portfolio
Fading flower – in progress
As my beautiful Mother’s Day Flowers began to fade, the underside of this flopping flower’s petals caught my eye. A square composition took hold, and a the drawing developed over
Mother’s Day Flowers
This vase of beautiful flowers inspired me into action before they faded further! I didn’t think that Gerbera were flowers that lasted, but these did extremely well. They were still
Long Landscape Sketch
A quick landscape sketch in watercolour, in situ, somewhere in Yorkshire! On a camping get away with friend Sharon, we stopped off at a particularly scenic spot and found ourselves
Portrait of a Wee One
My first portrait in a very long time! This pencil portrait was for a friend, this is her gorgeous grand-daughter!
Cyclamen
A ‘mixed media’ bash at capturing the unusual, beautiful form of this rescued cyclamen! You can read and see more about the process and progress of this painting in my
Goldilocks
Having decided to give watercolours a go, and having purchased a fair few tubes, spending a day decanting into a palette box and then purchasing ‘proper’ watercolour paper, I gave
Drawn Response to Unearthing a Bronze Age Cremation Urn
This drawing followed on from the first sketch from the archaeological dig in the Scottish Borders. I chose brown paper this time to represent the site. Having uncovered the
Archaeology Dig Drawing 1 – Response to Unearthing Bronze Age Burial Sites
Following a fortnight helping Malcolm volunteering on an Archaeology dig, excavating two trenches in the Scottish Borders, and writing a diary of each day, I felt the need to draw
Witch Hazel Leaf Ink Sketches
I cooked up a small batch of ink from my lovely autumnal witch hazel leaves. At this time of year, they are turning all shades of wonderful and beginning to
Hamamelis – Witch Hazel drawings
I unashamedly and absolutely love my Hamamelis/ Witch Hazel! It has grown from a ‘special’ birthday present twiglet around 20 years ago into a wonderful branching tree. To say it
Pinny Cactus
An illustration of a cactus with pins for spikes growing in a breakfast cereal bowl. A fun, cheery drawing taken from three separate prompts – motivation comes from all kinds
Amanita muscaria Drawing
This Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) was one of a patch we’ve visited for a few years now in a local wood – a magical place! I was unsure about the
Reflections – Dad
It’s my dad’s 80th birthday tomorrow. This is taken from a photo of him in sixth year at school – he was the dux of his year, and a prefect.
A Dozen Snowdrops
I do find the simple purity of snowdrops tricky to capture, but got into these after the first few. I’m not sure it’s achieved what I wanted, but it may
Sunflower
Sunflowers are a great subject to draw – I have several sketched sunflowers through the years, since growing them with Ronan when he was wee and they grew way above
Peacock Butterfly
I drew this butterfly as a special gift. Butterflies can represent many different things: – Change and transformation – New life – Endurance – Hope I picked up my Elizabeth
Eratigena sp Etchy Sketch
A wee squint into a sketchy spidery page of my etching sketchbook. A brief glimpse into the beginnings of working-out the workings of (my) arachnophobia. It’s definitely all about the
Rosie – Pet Portrait
This is a graphite drawing of Rosie, our rescue (sight) hound. A ‘pet portrait’ from the portfolio in more ways than one! She is a saluki cross, her DNA
“Scene I” (Whale)
Enter the hump backed whale, stage right, slowly through the dead of night… A copperplate etching with aquatint and embossing. Ronan gave me a wonderful handmade, stuffed whale for my
Orkney Grasses
This was the very first copper plate etching plate I ever did! Malcolm, Bernard and I were in Orkney. A very special trip, a mission to collect an engagement ring
It’s all a bit brand new just now, so please ‘bear with’ as there will be some changes going on!
…Meet Bernard, he does need introducing as he is a very special bear. You can read about him in this blog, and look out for future updates.
Rest assured he is always here, helping out, and keeping everything ticking over with his calming bear ways.
