Just a small watercolour study

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to see the Sea Odyssey display down in Liverpool. I’ve got a few more pieces that I’ve been working on that I’ll hopefully post soon(ish). It was crazy seeing kids wave at the gigantic puppets, the whole crowd was totally swept up by it all.

Over the weekend I went to check out Jeremy Heller’s installation of a bouncy Stonehenge called Sacrilege as part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts.

I got there a bit early and managed to catch them blow them up to start the day. I tried to get a viewpoint of the inflatables near the tower blocks.

From a trip to Edinburgh last weekend, I went to draw the cherry blossoms in Meadow park but was a bit early. This is still one of my favourite cafe’s with amazing baked goods and such a bright open space.

Dropping some work off at this years Paisley Art Institute show, fingers crossed.

A new version for a book of drawings I’ve been working on. I’ve slightly altered my palette and I think I’ll simplify it even further. Ideally I’d like it to be burnt umber, yellow ochre, sap green, paynes grey, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, cadmium red and alizarin crimson.

The pencil sharpener is incredible, you sharpen it in two goes to get a really long point. If I’m honest I don’t carry it around with me as you have to concentrate using it rather than quickly sharpening and drawing.

I bought an old pochade box from ebay last week which I’ve been converting so I can use it outside for some plain air painting. Its a beautiful box, made by Roberson & Co sometime between 1853-1937 when they were based in 99 Long Acre in London.

I had a small wooden adaptor made that I can use to paint with smaller panels as well. Its pretty adaptable the main board size is 14″ x 10″ and I can have any size smaller than that as well. On the bottom I’ve added a tripod mount so I can paint standing up. The easel has been cleaned up as well, after a century of use it was pretty unusable, in the video above I’ve shown the state of the underside.

Its got quite a few thoughtful details such as the small hinges which keep the palate in place so it won’t mess up the boards. There’s also a ratchet system on the inner piece (where the boards are) that you can use to raise the panel up and down.

I can’t wait to start using it, hopefully this weekend I’ll start trying it out.

After cycling around the isle of Bute, waiting for the ferry back to Wemyss Bay.

Felt like an age ago, with such amazing almost summer weather while today its been snowing, crazy.