Dave

Dave

Having found pencils and gone through what has been a very interesting and exciting week of learning. Thanks to all who have given so much this week. I thought I would return to try another drawing of a person.

Dave visited our village a couple of weeks ago and I had the pleasure of meeting him. He asked me, before he left if I would attempt a drawing of him. I took a little picture of him on my cell phone.

I have made a start. Now I realise I only have his address no phone number or email. So I will have to write him and ask if he can look on my website. I have posted it there and now here. If he thinks it is a fair capture I will finish it.

By then I will have returned home from my mountains.

During my time away I am going to visit the Derwent Pencil Factory and see what they have on offer for drawing. I feel like a child in a sweet shop.

Never thought I would see the day I was getting excited about pencils.

Have a great weekend. As I said on my other blog I will not manage to post tomorrow but should be back on during my time away. If you have a little spare moment, think of me and my mountains.

This blog is linked to my other. Three Young Ladies

I Have Added Some More Dark Spots.

I Have Added Some More Dark Spots.

I am always amazed at how helpful you all are. I mean that in the most sincere way possible. Not long after I had posted my blog yesterday I received an email offering me advice on how to make this drawing closer to completion than it was.

The person who sent me the email will remain my secret but I thank her so much for taking the time to offer the advice.

So I hope like me we are all still getting something from my posting the changes and the developments. This is the last time I will post it. I am now definitely going to take it with me next week and in a quiet moment look at it again. I will look at it with my eyes half closed. I will study it upside down. I will leave it and glance at it from time to time. In fact I will do all of the things I have been advised to.

I have no doubt I will make small changes, if not some radical ones.

This has been a wonderful learning experience and I thank each and every one of you for you help, advice and encouragement.

Now I feel that I have had a fair number of free lessons from some great art teachers. Please send me your accounts. Oh but please do not have any surveys on the back of the receipt.

If that last sentence does not make sense see my other blog. How Many Does It Take

Have a great day. I promise this is the last of the Little Bridge.

I Think it Is Almost There.

I Think it Is Almost There.

I have worked on this drawing off and on for a few days now. At last I have reached the bottom of the page. It was Barbra who advised me to work from top to bottom to save smudging the work already done. Is it finished? I do not think so. I am still not happy with the underside of the bridge. I have gone back and look again at my source and the actual bridge does have a strange angle to it. It is very tempting to go and try and straighten that for the sake of the drawing.

I am not sure that I have managed to capture the moving water as well as I might have. I would have loved to get more texture into the stones. Apart from that it seems not too bad. But then apart from that there is not much more to it.

I know that some of you have advised me to leave drawings where you can see them and return to them later. I will now do just that.

The process has indeed been important to me, as Jennifer commented yesterday. I have met a few obstacles along the way, mainly of my own making and inadequacies. I hope I have learned from them.

Next week as most of you know I am going away for a week to try and overcome a couple of other obstacles, two mountains. In the part of the world where I am going is a pencil factory. I will certainly be purchasing some pencils and may even buy a few of the coloured variety. Any advice in such matters would be helpful.

The obstacle of painters block I feel has been removed thanks to a pencil, a blender, an eraser and loads of friends. I am this morning feeling very grateful to you all.

Watch this space.

This blog is linked to my other. Obstacles Along The Way

The Work Goes On

The Work Goes On.

Apologies, that once again I have used two separate pictures on my blogs. The picture on my other is another angle of one of the mountains I have set myself as next weeks challenge run. I am already starting to feel the excitement at the thought of facing this marvellous mountain edge. The picture does not fully show the height and the feeling of airiness that such an edge brings to even the most seasoned walker, let alone fell runner.

On this blog I have posted the ongoing drawing. I am finding this a very time consuming yet interesting project. Thanks to all those who have sent me help and comments. I will soon complete it. I have tried hard to get the dark under the bridge correct but I can still see it is not right.

I will learn from this lesson. This picture is just for my learning so it will not matter too much that I have not got it 100% this time.

I know Katherine is now attempting to get to grips with watercolour and making great strides. I was wondering if maybe I should stick with the pencils but maybe add some coloured ones to my range?

We will see, as I say I am on a big learning curve and enjoying the experience. Who know what will be next.

I am so glad to have so many FRIENDS who are offering so much help. Why have I put friends in capital letters. Look at my other blog and there you will see.

Thanks to all my dear friends on blogging. Sherry is still in my thoughts and I hope things are improving for her.


This blog is linked to my other.  Friends Are Such Precious Things

A Work In Progress

A Work In Progress

Today I have used two different pictures, one on each blog but they do go together. Let me explain.

On the other blog there is a picture of a beautiful mountain ridge. It is the upper section of a mountain edge called, “Sharp Edge”. This is a route to the summit of a mountain in the English Lake District. As most of you know I love mountains, even though I am not good at exposed places. I love the very mountains and the views and world of summits. I discovered my fear of heights is much less if I run rather than walk. But as you know I have not been able to run till recently.

Well I am feeling fit. Next week is our October holiday and I am heading to these mountains. I have set myself a challenge of two mountains; this is the summit of one of them. This is my mountain to climb. Well it is one of my mountains to climb.

The other, is this picture on this blog. This is a work in progress. As you know I have been inspired by two or three of you to have a try at pencils. This is my second attempt. I have spent ages on it, yet I am still full of doubts.

The dark underside of the bridge I hope will look better when I complete the other half of the bridge.

I am not at all sure that I am managing to use enough different methods to get the shapes right?

I show it today because I know you will if you see a way give me advice.

I also hope that advice will be of help to others.

This blog is linked to my other. The Race To The Top

Poppies In The Wind.

Poppies In The Wind.

Everybody it seems likes poppies. So many of us paint them, time and again. I have lost count of the number of poppy paintings I have done.

This one was painted after painting three paintings one after another, none of which I liked. I returned to my favourite poppies and this was what happened.

It sold almost within a week of being hung.

When U painted it I noticed that the poppies were almost in the shape of an arrow. This was exactly how they had been as I saw them along the coastal path.

I did not know whether to call them, Poppies in the Wind, Success this Way.

The second title could so easily have been the title for this morning’s blog. My other blog I mean. The one where I talk about what real success is.

This blog is linked to my other. Let Us Race Again

Lavender Fields Provence

Lavender Fields of Provence

I used this painting that I have shared before for one reason and one reason only. I share it with you.

I have as you know in the last few days been persuaded to have a try and using pencils. Inspired by Katherine and Barbra and Ruby and the drawings they have been showing on the blogs they write I have decided to give it a try. Yesterday I was in the room where this painting was lying, unsold. As I looked at it I saw that if I was doing it now I would see it in a different way, because of what I have already learned from the drawings and the advice given to me by Susan.

Now I like this painting, and I did enjoy painting it.

So in that lies a little dilemma. Do I change my painting style to incorporate what I am learning? Or do I try to keep the two separate?

Is art not a wonderful thing. It involves all of our being, hands and mind.

This blog is linked to my other where I am speaking about finding answers to searching questions. And that above is my truth that I need to know. LOL

Have a lovely weekend.

Link to the other blog. I Am Seeking The Truth



Its Jackie Again

Its Jackie Again

Yesterday I posted a sketch of Jackie. I did say it was just a sketch and that I was aware that it was not a good sketch. I posted it because he was a person who fitted the nature of my blog.

I am so glad that I did. Fellow bloggers got in touch with me and told me how I might change it, work on it, and make it better. It was so refreshing to get some real good feedback.

As most of you know I have not touched any paint in ages. Yesterday I thought I would listen to you and have a try at doing this again.

One or two have seen my effort and have pointed out where it can still get better. I have never worked with just pencils before. I love the smell of paint. I love the touch of it and its spontaneity. I never ever dreamed for a moment that I would find something in a few pencils.

So today I post Jackie again. Both, the first and the second version. I know Susan and Barbra will tell me it still has a long way to go. I know they are correct.

But that is exactly what I thought this little blog was all about. I started this blog to show a fellow artist how I had produced a certain painting. It just went on from there.

Now it is back there and it is you showing me. Thank you all. Feel free to ask me to add anything you wish in this blog.

Susan asked me yesterday about the new trainers. I am just about to go out and try them for the first time. The painting Kim did of my old smelly ones, she tells me she sold. Congratulations. Imagine my old smelly trainers hanging on a wall somewhere. Maybe the owner wants the originals? Ha ha.

This blog is linked to my other.  Please bring Your Own Spade

Jackie

Jackie

Having been brave enough to share my drawing of a mountain with you I thought I would have another attempt at a sketch of something else. So I thought I would have another try at drawing a person.

Here it is, Jackie. Now I have tried and finished portraits of people before using pastels. I have even tried a self portrait. These I have always done from a number of photographs. I have never just sat and drawn.

I hope you notice I am not calling it a drawing but a sketch. I need somebody to tell me how, using pencils I make this into a fully fledged drawing of this person. How to I get those lovely textures so many of you are able to do?

Ruby in her blog said you either have it or you do not. I don’t think I have but I might try to find it.

I mention her because today she is off to the hospital for tests, but more importantly she is one of those who I was talking about in my other blog who always seems to see the positive and good in all things. I know some of you like me follow her blogs.

Jackie the old lad in the portrait is another of that ilk. He only ever sees the very best in everything and everybody.

I know he would laugh out loud if he heard me saying, “I hope I am like him when I am old.”

I am not sure I have managed to capture that wry smile of his; I might even have made him looked surly.

OK Katherine just for you. This is a sketch, done by a pencil.

Keep looking on the good side. This is the way of the Tao.

This blog is linked to my other. It All Depends Where You Are

Mountains To Climb

Mountains To Climb

I reluctantly included this drawing today on my other blog. I thought and thought about what I could put there and my mind kept coming back to this one.

Before I go any further let me tell you it is my first ever attempt at producing a painting using only pencils. I did so because I had looked long and hard at the painting done by Barbra of the roots of the tree. I know I have mentioned it often, but it did so impress me.

Enough, for me to want to have an attempt at producing something of my own, and this is it. It is not a great attempt I am aware but it is the first artistic thing I have done in ages. It is maybe just the first step back up the mountain to painting as I did in the past.

Susan was speaking on her blog the other day of painters block. I am not sure what causes it, but I do know what it is.

Showing you this today might just be a new beginning for me, we shall see. So please do not anybody say it is good. it is what it is , a start.

It does fit my other blog though. This is the summit of one of Scotland’s 287 mountains over 3,000 feet high. People in Scotland try to “bag” all 287. A great many of them leave this one till last, it is known as the “Inaccessible Pinnacle”. to climb it alone would be foolhardy if not impossible. It requires roping up and helping one another. This is the theme of my other blog this morning.

It is as it is a drawing done on paper with pencil.

This blog is linked to my other.  Be Smart Like The Goose

Rainy Day Along The Coastal Path

Rainy Day Along The Coastal Path

Yesterday there was a real sense that summer was drawing to a close. As I ran along the coastal path, and later at night walked another section of it, there was a gale force wind blowing and the rain was beating down. The wind was still warm but it was fierce. Leaves were being blown from trees, the last of the flowers were taking a real battering. The wild berries were being pounded to juice on the branches of the bushes.

I hope that word picture takes away from the day some of its terror and fear. It really was not a day to be out running or walking, or so it would seem. But there is even in the wildest of days a beauty to capture. There is even in the widest and most turbulent times of life something to learn from the experience.

This painting I have shown before but I just felt I had to use it today because it fits so well with my other blog.

This was painted on canvas using acrylic paint. The later stages of the process were painted using a spatter method. Loading the brush with painting and then either tapping the brush on the handle of another brush, or flicking the hairs of the brush on the handle. I tried hard to control where the paint went and what it did.

I hope I managed to capture the wild beauty of that part of the coastal path.

I have two emails to answer and then I am off to run along past this very part. I will leave the new shoes for another day it is still going to be very wet and muddy on the path.

I hope you have an inspiring and marvellous day.

This blog is linked to my other. You Have To Be What You Are

Large MM Abstract.

Large MM Abstract.

This painting was created using the same methods as the one I used on my blog yesterday. It seemed right to put the other one on again today.

I am not sure that it fits with the blog I have written today on my other blog and for that I apologise.

I am still struggling to come to terms with the fact that somebody I have got to know on here is off sleeping in a car and I can do little about. I also have a dear friend who is going through Chemo at present and I can do little about that either.

Another of my blogging friends is also very ill and can not paint because it is exhausting her. I can do nothing. I feel helpless.

In the meantime here I am complaining that I cannot find the inspiration to paint, seems so trivial. At the same time my health is daily increasing with the tough schedule I have set myself. I have lost 28lbs in weight running better and yesterday cycled twice as far as I had thought I could and intended.

So one day soon I will paint. I have been trying to do some drawing but it is far from good enough to show on here, after showing Barbra’s tree roots.

I have also been remiss in leaving encouraging comments on the many blogs I read every day. That I will put right .

It is these thoughts that prompted my other blog this morning.

I hope you have a good day.

This blog is linked to my other.  So You Thought Nobody Was Watching

Abstract MM1

Abstract MM1

I put this art back on here today because it is probably the one abstract that so many people saw in so many ways.

In this abstract there is in fact the face of a child that is only noticeable if you look at the painting in a certain way. Some people see it some never ever do.

Some who see it like what they see, others find it eerie and worrying.

It is of course all how you respond to the painting. This is exactly what I am talking about on my blog today. How we respond to situations in nature and in life.

This painting was created using mixed media.

I have a you tube of how it was done.

This painting and another like it was purchased very soon after it was painted and both now hang in the same home.

This blog is linked to my other. The Home Run

Explosion

Explosion

This is a piece of artwork that is one of three. I used it on my other blog this morning because I was doing my best to speak about how words can be so good and yet they can do so much damage if we use them without meaning.

Even worse if we only use words and that is all, if the words have no actions attached to them they are meaningless. Just an explosion of nothing.

I painted this a another two during a period when I was thinking deeply about where I was going in life, what was I doing with life.

I am at a loss in life at present in terms of my art. I have not got a clue where it is going. I am hanging in here because I have met so many people in here who are supportive.

But today I was concerned that my words like my art was become just that an explosion of words and no more.

I feel so at a loss that a fellow blogger is in real need and I have only words.

So I give you today just a few words and my explosion.

Have a good day.

This blog is linked to my other. Just Before You Tell Me

Sun and Calm Towards Arran

Sun and Calm Towards Arran

I just had to use this picture today. One of my stories on my other blog was about a man on just such a beach. As I told the tale I remembered painting this very painting. It was as if it was saying to me add me today please.

I liked this painting from the very first brushstroke. I continue to like it to this day.

It was painted on a large canvas using acrylic.

It is a good painting for me today for many reasons. I am heading out to run whenever I have posted this blog. As I look over my shoulder the rain is beating off the window. The coastal path will be wet; the sand from the beach will cling to my trainers and legs. My running top will be soaking as will my shorts. I will be thinking of days like in this picture and I will be loving every minute of my run.

Yesterday I thought I would try to do a drawing, having received a beautiful drawing of my tree roots from Barbara I felt inspired to maybe try something new. I have never ever just tried to use pencils.

I have made a start on a picture of a mountain. Some of you know of my love of mountains. Of course Barbra has told me I should have started with something small, less challenging. I am probably doomed to fail, but I am still going to try.

Hope you have a great day and if I do not hear from you a great weekend.

This blog is linked to my other. Just A Little Thought To Make You Smile

The Conspirators 2

The Conspirators 2

I just could not help using this painting again today. Yes I used it not so long ago, I am aware of this. I painted just a short time before I had this painters block that I am going through just now. I still have it, it is hanging in one of the inns where I hang works for sale.

I do not think it is going to sell, but after the lesson I learned from so many of you the other day I am aware that this does not matter. MY son actually made the comment that he thought it was a great painting but not one you would hang on your wall.

It is a painting of two friends, husband and wife. They are a couple who I have never heard them say a single bad word about anybody. The title therefore is probably not the best of titles, it just seemed to fit.

They are a wealth of little good stories about other people, not the gossip type, just they always have something good to say about the most difficult of persons.

Fits well with the other blog theme this morning, I hope you agree.

I painted it using pastel. Whenever I start painting again this will be the first one I will change. I think I might even just give it to the couple. You never know they might like to hang it on their wall.

Have a great day and remember my other blog. Tell somebody today you care.

This blog is linked to my other. Tell Them You Care

Love Reaches Deep 2

Love Reaches Deep 2.

Yes I have used this picture very recently and on a day where I notice my 100th follower has joined this blog I should at least have come up with something more. But I just had to.

I am sure I mentioned at the time that Barbra had taken a copy of this picture of my tree and was going to draw it. She spent days doing so and the final drawing was posted on her blog. What a surprise it was to receive through the post yesterday the very painting. Not a copy of it but the very drawing.

I just had to share this with you today. Art can cross oceans and span the world with its joy.

We should never ever underestimate the power of what we do.

This is the second time somebody has sent me something. Cheryl sent me two lovely cards of her artwork.

There are no words that can ever say what I feel like today.

We artist take pictures or we capture the world in our eye. We see things in a way that others might not have noticed. We also have that wonderful ability to share this with others.

I am not sure we ever are fully aware of what it means to another person to have in their possession the work of an artist. This lesson I have learned.

I will return to painting very soon of that I have no doubt. But I know I will return feeling differently about what it is I am doing and why I am doing it.

How glad I am I took that picture of that tree and then went on to post it here. Do you remember I expressed my doubts about it?

I have put the tree picture on my other blog and here I have put the drawing by  Barbra Joan

This blog is linked to my other  So You Think You Have No Worth?

Calm Along The Coastal Path.

Calm Along The Coastal Path.

As you all know, and are probably tired of hearing, I am a runner. Now let me clarify that, I used to be a runner, and now I am a jogger who likes to tell himself he is a runner. What is the difference? The difference lies in the quality of running. A runner will complete a mile in 7 minutes or under, a jogger will take more than 7 minutes and a walker will normally take 15 minutes to cover a mile. I just try so hard in the mornings to be a runner but end up a jogger, glad I am not seen as a walker.

I say all of this because I realise that I have a big fault line running through my life. It was put there when I was a child. I was always told that I could do better. I heard it so often I now tell it to myself. I am doing it now as an “artist” or “painter”.

I always want to be like all those blogging friends who paint such marvellous works of art. The reality is, I have never had a lesson, I started only a few years ago. The big one of course is what you all so kindly let me know. I have painted some pictures and paintings that others have liked and more importantly I have liked.

You are all correct when you tell me to stop torturing myself and relax and enjoy. I promise you I am going to do just that.

This painting was painted to fill a space above a bar in a local hotel. It was painted on two canvases. They had to be narrow yet long. They were painted using acrylic.

I painted them so easily depicting what I had seen on one of my morning runs. Calm and relaxed sea the sun not yet out but winking its presence.

The painting was hung and fitted well. A customer fell in love with it and pleaded with the owner to allow her to purchase it. He eventually allowed her to. I have never got round to filling that place above the bar.

I hope this blog makes some sense to you. It is linked to my other where I am talking really about getting some perspective into our lives. To live life as it is.

This blog is linked to my other. What Was All That About?

1812

1812

I have used this painting again today even though I had it on here not so long ago. On my other blog I have been talking about change for the last two days. Today I was linking change with the fear of failure. Rightly or wrongly I think they are connected.

While writing this morning I was very aware that I have painted very little for the last few weeks. That in fact I have stepped back from doing anything with paint. I have made all sorts of excuses the biggest one that I need to get back to my fitness level and lose the extra weight I had put on. Both are fact but both are also, I now realise smokescreens.

I took a step with painting where I got ambitious, maybe even over confident. I produced this painting and one or two others in a similar way. I really liked them.

The trouble is; nobody else seems to. They are taking up hanging space and not selling. I have been afraid to admit failure and learn.

I painted this using all sorts of different methods of using texture. It did not work.

Maybe it is time to think again and get back to just paint.

Time for change. Once I get one or two other things sorted I will take the plunge.

This blog is linked to my other. The First Step

Apocalypse

Apocalypse

This is a painting I have never shown before. How do I know this, because, I have never shown this painting to anybody before. This was one of those that I painted when I was feeling overcome with events. I felt surrounded by demands and things I had to do. I would get up in the morning not want to have another day doing the same thing.

Then there were the days when I was ready to paint, the phone would ring and I would have another day sitting on the bench in court. I needed to do something.

This painting came to me one day. I hated it and still do. What it did though was made me see that I had to break through the fences I had built and find something else to do in my life.

It was painted on a large canvas with acrylic. Painted in a very short space of time. It is not more but it did its task and made me unafraid of change.



This blog is linked to my other where I speak of the need to face change. Is It Time For a Change

Be Still

Be Still

It was good to hear again from my friend Missy who purchased yesterdays art. She also at the same time bought this one. Yesterday she and her secretary read the blog about her painting and said that it gave them some pleasure. I have therefore today added the second of her paintings.

It does actually fit well with the theme of my other blog this morning. The power of words, to cause hurt or healing, to bring joy or sadness. Art also has this amazing power, to say so much without the use of words at all.

This painting tries to capture in an abstract way the sense of power in waves and nature. It also talks about the struggle we have to find inner peace. Many have commented to me about this painting and its title, “Be Still”. For that reason I will say no more about what I was trying to say in it.

I was painted large and on canvas using acrylic.

I know it continues to bring some joy to my friend and for that I am grateful.

If we can say a small thing to uplift another or paint a picture that gives others a joy, we have succeeded.

This blog is linked to my other.  What Was That You Said?

Alpha Omega

Alpha Omega

I just had to put this painting back on my blog today. It is just amazing how life turns out. These last few weeks I had not heard from a friend in the USA for ages. I was considering emailing her, but for one reason or another I had not. Maybe because I had not been painting and did not want to tell her, you see, she was the first person ever to buy a painting from me who did not already know me. So although not my first sale, my first real meaningful one in terms of her being a stranger.

Since then she has become a great friend whom one day I hope to meet, with her family. She says they are all longing to visit Scotland one day.

This is one of two paintings she bought from me. On more than one occasion she has urged me to keep painting and I have because of her words.

It was she who told me the story of the man with the patches, I used on the other blog.

Life has not been going smoothly for her, but seems to be getting better again. I will never forget her, or her family and I will never forget this painting. I have small print of it in my study.

It and the other one were very large canvases. The painting was done in acrylic. I think the title says what was on my mind as I painted it.

I learned from her how to say, “Hello Ya'll.”

So let me say to Ya'll, have a great day and if you are looking for a little laugh to start the day check out the other blog.



This blog is linked to my other. People Do Some of the Funniest Things

Music Movement Dance

Music Movement Dance

I really do have to get back to painting. I keep putting off and off the day when I will lift a brush or a knife. I painted so many bad ones lately I have lost the heart to do it. I keep telling myself that I need to concentrate on getting back to full fitness then we will see.

I suppose the bleak spell of no sales has also been playing on my subconscious mind. On my other blog today I was giving thought to yesterday and the pessimist I met. I really need to go back a read what I wrote today and take it to heart.

This painting was painted at the request of a family friend. She was a lover of music and signing and dancing.

I tried to convey all three in the abstract painting. It was done on two canvases making a large painting that certainly made a great statement in the room where she hung it.

She liked it, I like it.

Now why do I not just remember that today and after my run stop making excuses and get on with it.

I hope you have a wonderful day with a glass half full not half empty. (See my other blog)

On second thoughts before jerry says it, I hope you have a wonderful day and your glass runs over with joy.



This blog is linked to my other.  It All Comes Down To How You See It

The Mirage

The Mirage

As those who read my linked blog will know, today I was talking about determination. To have any determination we need to have an accompanying dream. I was brought up as a child to know my place. My mother did not intend to put me down; she just believed that we all had our place in life. I was born into a poor family, financially, not in the wealth of knowledge and caring that I got from my father. My mother would always be telling me to stop dreaming and realise who I was. My father, on the other hand, would take me aside and tell me to dream dreams.

This painting for me is a painting about such dreams. When I look at it, it reminds me of those words of his, to dream dreams. It speaks to me of places to see and things to achieve. It speaks of the hopes of my inner me.

Strangely I have two very similar paintings. I was asked to do another for somebody else. Their circumstances changed and they no longer had a place for it. So I have one that never sold and one that never will because it will stay on my living room wall.

Apologies again for my absence, I had intended to post but could not get internet very easily where I was.

I hope you all have a wonderful day when another dream comes true.

This blog is linked to my other.  It Takes Determination