Taking the ferry over to Kilcreggan then cycling round the bay to Helensburgh.

A short stop half way around the bay, its good drawing the people fishing by this mini beacon type building apparently its pretty good for sea trout and mackerel.

After arriving in Helensburgh had some lunch at Riverhill Courtyard which I’ve been looking forward to trying out. It has really spacious main room with carved wooden struts giving the place a really clean old/new look.

There’s quite a bit of construction work going on at Helensburgh at the moment so the promenade is a bit shorter at the moment. I used to be able to get the ferry back to Gourock from here, but they’ve stopped it fairly recently.

Last ferry back home

This was one of those strange but good jobs that come across now and then. I was asked to do a painting for the BBC for a feature they were doing about the Scottish bowling team being picked for the Commonwealth games this year. I had to do a painting of the team bowling in front of Kelvingrove but unfortunately the season hadn’t started yet so I had to make do.

It was good fun to do getting filmed painting outside.

I’ve just recently finished a set of illustrations for a local café in Gourock, One Cove Road. It was pretty much an ideal job, and was really happy as its the first local jobs I’ve done.

The great selection of cakes

Full Scottish breakfast

View of the Clyde (the water)

The bar and gantry

The Coffee area

A small cute whisky sampler from the excellent shop, Valhalla’s Goat.

The Glasgow underground is slowly getting renovated, with the white tiles slowly covering the brown ones.

the act was a puppeteer

Claire, flowers

Vivi by the Clyde

A couple of new paintings, the Frames Gallery has started to take on some of my new work, they’ll be shown in the London Affordable Art Fair 13-16 March.

A couple of pages from the German school teaching resource all centred around sketchbook work.

A wee drawing of a gigantic tanker. I saw this huge thing driving past, so dropped of my car and went closer to see if I could draw it, I hadn’t taken into account the closer I got the less I could see in my field of view. A lot of it was obscured by piles of dirt that was getting moved.

On a day trip to the Isle of Bute, it started off a beautiful sunny day with long shadows, perfect for drawing and painting.

Crocuses at the water’s edge

I try and pop into this post office and café when ever I’m in Bute. Always a good place for a snack and a really good made cup of coffee, maybe one of the best on the west coast. The window seats are ideal for drawing the port as there’s a great view of the port, I’ve only caught a small area here.

A sign outside the Black Bull Inn in Rothesay.

A few times when I’ve cycled past here, I’ve seen the farmers practise taking the Clydesdale horses out with a carriage. The carriage they use is on metal sleds which may (I’m guessing) is for the weight and build their strength.

Feast on the ferry home.