Grandad Keeley

100 years on from the end of the Great War, today was a day for Remembrance.  As most of you are aware I usually paint landscapes but today I took some time out from that and chose to remember Grandad Keeley.  I was very young when he died so I have no memories of him as an individual but this is what I do know.  If any family members are reading this and would like to add to his story, there is a comments section below.

Michael Keeley was underage when he enlisted in August 1914 and joined the West Lancashire Royal Field Artillery.  His records were apparently destroyed during the Second World War so there is little information on his exact role and movements during the subsequent 4 years.  As I understand it though, he was assigned to the cavalry unit and worked with the horses throughout the war.  The picture above is based on a photograph from that time.  There is another photo of him at Toxteth Military Hospital from Christmas 1918 which suggests he was injured and repatriated towards the end of the war.  What he was doing on this exact day 100 years ago when the guns fell silent is something I'll probably never know.

We're lucky today that most of us will never truly appreciate the horror of war.  The lives we lead today and the freedom that we too often take for granted were hard fought for.  Grandad Keeley came home.  So many people didn't.  We should never forget that.

Dolomites

 The Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy have been on my travel wishlist for several years now and last summer I finally went there on a week long hiking trip with my friend Dawn.  We had booked a trip through Sherpa Expeditions where we walked from one village to the next our bags were moved on for us.  It was a great way to travel as every day we were waking up somewhere new but we didn't have the added burden of carting our entire lives around in gigantic backpacks.  All the  routes were meticulously planned out with detailed instructions and maps so all we had to do was turn up and enjoy the holiday.  We couldn't really ask for better than that.


Needless to say, I took hundreds of photographs and came home wondering where to begin.  I had taken a bit of a break from painting so to get myself started again, I picked a church in Colfosco, one of the little villages we stayed in.  These little white churches are dotted around all over the place so really do represent the area.  I often start with drawings when I haven't done anything for a while - it helps me get back into it again.  I had recently bought some acrylic inks with some birthday vouchers (thanks Sonya!) so I was playing around with these in my first picture.  Many of the hotels we stayed in had old sepia photographs on the walls so this is the look I was going for here.  I think I need a bit more practice with the inks - they dry very quickly so I sometimes found I got a few too many brush marks where I hadn't expected them but overall, this was not a bad warm up exercise.

We weren't really there for the churches though, we were there for the mountains so this was the focus of my second picture.  As you make your way through the mountains, every now and then you pass a little wooden hut with a chimney.  They're there for hikers to sleep for the night.  There are a number of longer distance routes that take you through the whole mountain range, stopping in these camping huts each night.  I was glad we had chosen the more luxurious option for our trip although there is a part of me that could be tempted by the camping option one day.

I stuck with drawing for this.  I like the way the rocks behind the church came out in the first picture and wanted to take that further.  The rocks are, after all, what makes this place so distinctive.  When the light hits them, particularly in the early morning or late afternoon, the shadows create some really interesting shapes.  This picture took ages but I'm pretty happy with the result.

Finally, I went back to my pastels.  Having spent so long on the details in the previous drawing, I was ready to step back and just go for it with this one.  I didn't really know how it was going to turn out but I thoroughly enjoyed the process of finding out.  This picture was from the most memorable day of the trip for me.  We took the gondola up to the top of a mountain.  It was baking hot when we set off and absolutely freezing at the top with a biting wind.  There are many remnants of the First World War up here and we spent an hour or so at the top walking past huge craters blown out of the side of the mountain with dynamite, through old trenches still with their rolls of barbed wire in plan and past tunnel systems dug into the rocks where soldiers lived.  On a sunny day in August it was cold.  In the middle of winter with limited resources and and opposing army trying to blow you up at every opportunity, it must have been brutal.  It was a sobering remainder of just how lucky we are.  I haven't found a way yet of painting the remains of war and doing them justice so the view in this picture is from standing with my back to them.

Sometimes, when you visit a place you've been wanting to see for a long time, the reality doesn't quite live up to expectation.  With the Dolomites I'd say the opposite was true.  This is a truly beautiful and awe inspiring place and as we left, my parting thought was "why has it taken me so long to come here?"

Sunrise at Fleet Pond

On a freezing cold day back in January, I had an appointment at the dentist to have a filling replaced.  Knowing how quickly the station car park fills up, I drove up early and parked my car then found myself with half an hour to kill before I went for my appointment.  Those of you who know Fleet will be aware that the station is right next to Fleet Pond, a nature reserve that has featured previously in this blog.  It was an icy day and the pond was completely frozen over so I decided to spend my time watching the sun rise.  It was a beautiful morning which was inevitably going to end up in a painting one day.  It took a couple of months for me to come back to it.  This is often the case as I mull the picture over in my head, trying to work out what I want from the end result.  In this case it was the blues and pinks of the sky that stayed in my mind so that's what I set out to capture. I used a watercolour under-painting, followed by pastels - a technique you'll have seen me use once or twice before.  

Having finished this picture, I took a bit of a break from painting over the summer, I focusing instead on landscaping the garden. Those of you who also paint will know that after a break, it's sometimes hard to get back into things and when I returned to my easel I was at a bit of a loss as to where to begin.  I've stopped parking my car at the station now (the cost is ridiculous) and instead use my parents' driveway which is a 10 minute walk away round, you guessed it, Fleet Pond.  So now I get these fabulous sunrises every single day of the week.  It seemed an obvious place to start - pick up again where I left off.  The next few paintings ended up in the bin.  I couldn't seem to get what was in my head out onto the paper and I screwed them up in frustration.  This afternoon I decided to just spend some time playing around with a few sketches which was exactly what I needed to do.  This is one of them - another sunrise using Pan Pastels.  Pan Pastels are pastel pigment compressed into a dish and you apply them using either your fingers or sponges.  I opted for sponges this time, something I haven't really tried before but will definitely be doing again.  I stopped myself from adding too much detail on the reed banks, choosing instead to just hint at them with the green.  I love the end product and as it was supposed to just be an experiment it has come as a bit of a surprise.  Now I'm left wondering what I can do next with these lovely little pots of colour but for now I'll leave you with today's efforts.

Fall Foliage

Every now and then an email drops into my inbox from Pete Marney, a former colleague and an excellent photographer.  His emails contain links to his latest set of photographs along with stories and anecdotes describing where and why they were taken.  It always makes a nice start to my day when they turn up and I spend a little while browsing through his pictures with my morning cuppa before getting on with my work.  His mails were one of the inspirations behind this blog as I wanted to find my own way of telling the stories behind my pictures so it follows that sooner or later I was going to use one of his pictures as inspiration too.  

Back in October I got a message titled "Fall Foliage" with a set of photographs taken on a weekend trip to somewhere called Skytop Lodge.  I'm not entirely sure where Skytop lodge is (the email didn't say) but it looks like a lovely place so, with Pete's permission, I decided to have a go at my own interpretation of those beautiful autumn leaves.  I used pastels to get the bright colours on a watercolour under painting.  It's one of those paintings that was hard to judge when it was time to stop.   I could probably have kept going for longer, adding to the trees but I'm not sure I'd have improved it by doing that so it's coming off the easel as soon as I've finished writing this.  

If you like this one than please go ahead and check out the original photo on Pete's website.  Unusually for me, I tried to stick pretty closely to the original photo this time.  I hope I've done it justice.

New York

Whether you love it or hate it, there's no denying that New York can be a bit of an assault on the senses.  Times Square, in particular, is noisy and chaotic.  There's an interesting array of smells, some nicer than others and it's impossible to walk from one side of the square to the other without bumping into hundreds of people and photo bombing many more.

I have to admit that after a week I'm usually quite pleased to return to the relative quiet of home - even with a hotel room on the 27th floor I could hear the car horns at night.  That doesn't in any way take away from the fact that it's an incredible city to visit.  I have a feeling that one painting of Times Square is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding inspiration here.  It's such an iconic place that we're so use to seeing on TV and in movies and the first time you visit you get a strange sense of deja vu.

I've been twice this year, both times for work (you can see our office in this picture).  After my first visit in June, I wanted to do a painting that captured the vibrant nature of the place but I wasn't quite sure how to approach it.  Then I read an article in a magazine which showed a painting of a night scene in Bangkok and how it was built up.  I decided that this was the way to represent New York so on my next visit I went out after work one evening and took some photos to work from.  Pastels seemed the obvious choice to get those bold colours and once I got going, this picture actually progressed pretty quickly. The whole thing was done in an afternoon and I made very few finishing touches when I came back the next week to look at it.

Sacre Coeur

This picture is from my last visit to Paris.  Happy memories with wonderful friends who I am lucky enough to be seeing this evening.  Like most of us, I was shocked and saddened when I picked up my newspaper this morning and heard of the devastating attack on this beautiful city.  It's beyond comprehension how anyone could dream up such a plan, let alone carry it out.

As you get on with your lives and prepare for your Saturday evening in with your family or out with your friends, spare a thought for the people who will never be coming home and the friends and families waiting for them.

Chicago Bean

I went to Chicago earlier this year to visit some friends.  After a week in noisy, hectic New York, I was expecting more of the same as I stepped off the plane.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Chicago is a much more relaxed, chilled out city.  And very arty too.  There's all kinds of interesting sculptures and artworks dotted around the place making it a lovely city to spend a few days exploring.  Without a doubt, Anish Kapoor's Bean (or Cloud Gate) in Millenium Park is the most striking and probably most photographed work of art that I saw during my stay.  The bean is perfectly smooth and polished and was built about 10 years ago following a design competition.  I would imagine there is a considerable cleaning effort required to keep it looking as flawless as it does.

It's not the easiest of things to paint either as the shape distorts everything in the reflection.  I put off  starting this picture for quite a while as I mulled over how to tackle it.  In the end, I dug out my pastels again as I thought they'd be a fun way of making the curved shapes and smooth surfaces and I think it was the right decision.

When I was there it was a beautiful sunny day and the place was swarming in tourists all taking pictures on their phones.  I couldn't help thinking it would look a lot better if we weren't all there so I decided to leave all but one of the people out of my final painting. This lady, leaning against the bean looking at her distorted reflection, hall of mirrors style is the only one who made the cut.  I liked her because she was just enjoying the moment instead of snapping away on her camera phone like the rest of us.  We should all take a leaf out of her book.  We miss so much with the all too easy point, click and move on approach that so many of us take to exploring a new place.

The Figure in Dance

In a bid to add a bit of variety to my paintings and move on from the usual landscapes, I've been to a number of portrait and life drawing classes over the last year.  I've spent many an evening sat in front of a model trying to get their limbs and features in the right place which is not as easy as it sounds.  The nature of these classes has meant I've come away with very few finished pieces to share with you but I have learned a lot.

When I joined Farnham Art Society and read through the program of events, "the Figure in Dance" caught my eye and I put my name down for this workshop with Jamel Akib.  We worked from photographs with a focus on bringing movement into the picture, something I don't do at all with a life model for obvious reasons.  After a couple of warm up sketches we moved onto our first picture.  The aim here was to use the background to help introduce that movement before we had even started on the figure herself.  As my other teachers will tell you, backgrounds are often a bit of an afterthought.  I may add a chair leg to stop my model from floating in mid air but I rarely give it much more thought than that so this was a very useful exercise.  The background here is done using acrylics with the figure then added in pastel.

In the afternoon, some of my fellow artists moved onto pictures of birds in flight with some amazing results.  I was enjoying the dancers though so decided to stick with that theme. I love the shapes that they make and I was particularly taken by the photo of these two where the lighting made it hard to tell where the dancer ends and the background starts.  I decided to give it a shot for my second painting.  I used acrylic and pastel again.  I didn't manage to finish this one during the workshop but took it home and continued working on it.  I'm pleased with the end result as both pictures are quite different from anything I've done before.  I think the first one is my favourite.  I came away from the workshop with hundreds of ideas so watch this space.  I would like to say a big thank you to Jamel and to Farnham Art Society for organising a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Battersea Power Station

This one was a special request from a friend at work.  He wanted Battersea Power Station looking "industrial and derelict with a hint of a future to come".  I've got to admit, I didn't quite know where to begin so I started by reading a bit about the history of this London landmark.  When the power station was first proposed in the late 1920s, the idea provoked protests from Londoners who felt it would be an eyesore and who worried about the effects of pollution.  In an attempt to address some of these concerns, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was commissioned to design the exterior of the building.  This is the same guy who also designed the red telephone boxes we all know and love so he clearly had a talent for producing iconic designs.  I think the tactic worked because at some point in the last 85 years, we fell in love with the place.  Where once people protested at the idea of it being built, now they protest at the idea it could be pulled down and developers wanted to make use of the site are forced to invest millions of pounds in its restoration.

Having learnt a bit more about the place and completed a few sketches in the process, I started on a drawing.  I thought this view with the railway line in front of it could help add to the industrial feel of the finished picture and the scaffolding would give a hint of future redevelopment.  It works to a certain extent but I don't think it really conveys the sheer scale of the place.  This is an enormous Power Station.  It's Europe's biggest brick building and it dwarfs everything around it and somehow that's not quite happening here.

So for my final painting, I chose a view from the other side of the building.  Here we're looking up instead of across and there is no real foreground to distract us.  The blocks of flats in the background are big ugly buildings in their own right but they look almost insignificant next to the power station.  I used watercolours and pastels because I felt that with watercolours alone, I couldn't quite get the industrial look I was aiming for.  There was a point about 3/4 of the way through the painting where I wasn't at all happy with it and I started drawing out a new version, bringing the building forward and towards the middle of the page.  It wasn't quite right there though and when I looked back an hour or so later at the first version, I could see where my mistakes were.   They were mostly around the horizon so I went back to correct them and the building sits a bit better in it's surroundings now.  I'm pretty happy with the end result - let's hope my colleague is too.

Fleet Pond

Fleet pond is Hampshire's largest freshwater lake.  It's located next to the station and along with the surrounding area of heath-land and marshland forms a nature reserve that the residents of Fleet are justifiably proud of.  My parents live a couple of minutes walk from Fleet Pond and my Dad is an active member of the Fleet Pond Society.  When my parents go on holiday I park my car at their house so I can water the garden on my way home from work.  A couple of years ago, as I was walking back to their house after work a rainbow could be seen from the jetty at the end of their road.  I couldn't resist stopping for a few photos thinking that one day, this would make a nice painting.  It's taken me a while to actually paint this.  Rainbows aren't easy and I never quite figured out how I could make it work in watercolour.  In the end, I decided to try with pastels instead and I'm reasonably happy with the results.  It's one of those pictures that I think looks better in real life than it does in a photograph but that's probably a reflection on my photography skills more than anything else.  It took a long time to get the clouds right and once I'd finished the picture, there were several weeks worth of tweaks added before I was happy enough to put it in a frame.  Part of the reason for eventually putting it in a frame was to stop myself from fiddling with it any further as I was in danger of over-doing it.

The jetty wasn't in my original photo as that's where I stood to take my pictures.  I went back another day to take those pictures as I thought it would make for a more interesting picture.  The person with his camera wasn't there either.  Someone did walk past a moment or two after I took my photos and took his phone out of his pocket to try and catch the same picture.  Just as he did that, the rainbow vanished and the rain started.  I decided to rewrite history a little in my painting and allow him the opportunity to arrive a minute earlier and catch the picture.  It was quite a lovely sight and it's a shame he missed out.

Commuting

Much as I would like to, I don't earn my living through painting.  Instead, I get up at 6 o'clock every morning and make my way up to the bright lights of the city.  Everyone I know who does this journey, complains about it as some time or another (I'm including myself in that list).  But even commuting has it's moments and my next two paintings were my attempt at capturing some of them.

I walk or bus to the station (depending on the weather) and arrive in time to catch the 7:22 train.  There is a point around late October / early November when this part of my commute coincides with sunrise.  I remember when I was in Fiji, I got up early one morning and climbed to the top of a nearby hill to watch the sun rise and it was one of those magical moments that will stay with me for the rest of my life.  Sunrise at Fleet station on a cold November morning is somewhat less magical but I do like the way the light of the sky reflects off the rails.

It takes about 45 minutes to get to Waterloo then it's onto the tube to complete my journey to Canary Wharf.  All through history the religions of the world have built giant temples and cathedrals to remind us of the power and dominance of whichever God it is they want us to worship and I sometimes think the buildings in Canary Wharf are temples to the God of Money.  Love it or hate it, this is an imposing place and I've been wanting to do a painting of it f for a while.  So I was probably the only person on the Isle of Dogs who was quite pleased to walk out of my office one day last week and see big dark storm clouds gathering behind the tower.  The sun was still shining behind me and it reflected of the Citibank building to produce quite an impressive scene.  It wasn't easy to paint though.  This is my second attempt which I'm reasonably happy with although if I was to do it again I might make the sky a bit darker.  Those of you who have used masking fluid will appreciate the number of paintbrushes I got through painting this twice and will understand why I'm unlikely to try a third version.

But dramatic skies are just that, dramatic skies and they can happen anywhere.  What actually makes my commute bearable and at times even enjoyable is the people who share the pain with me.  If you're on this list then these pictures are for you:

• You judge if you're running late by how far down Fleet Road you've got before I overtake you in the morning.
• You're one of the butchers who waves at me when I walk past your shop.
• You catch the same bus as me on the days when I can't be bothered walking.
• You were with me back in October when I suddenly stopped half way across the bridge to take the photo that went on to become picture number one.
• You have identified yourself in picture number one because, well, that's where you always stand so it must be you.
• You meet me on the platform every morning and we put the world to rights on our journey up to Waterloo.
• You are one of the people who sits near us and pretends not to listen in.
• You catch the tube with me every time there is a strike and then spend the rest of your life doing something to do with security in Africa.  I don't believe that you work for Barclays, I think you're a spy.
• You work in my office and occasionally appear on the escalator behind me at Waterloo.  It was a team effort working out who you are.
• You catch the bus home with me in the evening and you think I'm some kind of millionaire...who travels on Fleet Buzz.
• You're wondering where I put the carpark - it's big and ugly and I don't like it so I deleted it along with the people who ride their bikes along the platform in the morning.

Suffolk

It was my Dad's 70th birthday last year.  We spent some time thinking through what we could do as a family and were hoping to find a holiday let somewhere that we could all enjoy.  Around the time of his 69th birthday a friend from work went for a long weekend to The Balancing Barn in Suffolk and sent me a link to the website when he got back.  I was quite impressed and after a bit if discussion with Mum, we decided to go ahead and book.

It looked like such an unusual place in the photographs and when we arrived, it didn't disappoint.  You approach the building from the opposite end to this picture up a long driveway and it looks like quite an unassuming little place on the drive up.  The pitched roof and patio doors look pleasant enough but they don't prepare you for the rest of the place. It really does hang off the side of the hill like this and it is possibly the most amazing building I've ever stayed in.  The room closest to you in this picture is the living room which has a glass floor.  There is a swing hanging off the bottom of the building and you can watch people on the swing through the floor.

We stayed for 4 nights so had plenty of time to explore the area as well as appreciating the building itself.  Those of you who have read previous entries will remember my Beach Hut Bicycle post from last year which was based on the beach huts in nearby Southwold.  That picture made the place look considerably warmer and sunnier than it actually was.  Being February, the biting wind meant it was too cold to spend much time out on the beach.  I remember sheltering behind a building to get a photo of these boats in the hope that I could do a painting of them at a later stage.  I ended up opting for a coloured pencil drawing although I'm half tempted to try another version in watercolour at some point.

My parents are now looking forward to their Ruby wedding anniversary so another family holiday is imminent.  This time will be the Lake District so I have no doubt you'll be seeing a few pictures from that trip coming up soon.

Inner Hebrides

 In September I boarded the night train at Euston in the pouring rain, ready to make my way up to Scotland to visit my sister.  Those of you who have read my Oban post will understand why I expect the horrendous weather to follow me up the country.  Imagine my surprise then when I woke up the next morning to beautiful sunshine.  Waking up on the sleeper train is always a bit of a treat and I enjoyed my breakfast in bed while watching the world go by and it made a great start to a lovely holiday.



We decided that this time round we would explore some of the islands.  We took the boat over to Mull and then on to Iona.  I was spoiled for choice when it came to finding pictures that could later be turned into drawings or paintings.  The ruins of the abandoned nunnery did catch my attention though and when I got home, I didn't waste much time in getting started on this picture.  It's a pencil and chalk drawing done on pastel paper.  The level of detail meant it took ages and there were times when I sat down after work to draw the next layer of bricks and found myself wondering why I thought it was such a good idea to start this in the first place. I'm glad I persevered though as I am quite pleased with the end result and I hope it captures the beautiful but isolated feel of Iona.

Sue lives on Seil Island and the next day we stayed a bit closer to home and headed over to the neighbouring island of Easdale.  This was one of the biggest days in the Easdale calendar as stone skimmers from around the world gathered for the World Stone Skimming championships. I'm told that Easdale is normally a quiet little place with no cars and a close knit community.  Everyone was there on September 29th though, including all three Blue Peter presenters and a full film crew.  It would have been rude not to join in so we signed up and I'm proud(ish) to announce that I came 43rd out of 71 women.  I've got to say, I was amazed at how seriously some of the competitors take this event.  I watched one man sit for hours filing away at his stone so that it could be reduced to regulation size and he would then be allowed to skim it.  Actually, I watched him for about a minute but one of our Blue Peter friends assured me that he had been chipping away at it for hours and who am I to dispute the word of Blue Peter.  All in all, it was a fun day out and a very friendly and sociable place.  Even when it was overrun with people, you could see the peacefulness of Easdale with it's little rows of cottages all centered around a village green.  I'd like to go back some day and see what it's like when the stone skimmers have gone home and life is just happening at it's normal pace.

This final picture is also from Easdale but looking back out across the sea.  Sue tells me this is looking back towards the mainland.  It's from a photo I took towards the end of the day so the sun was quite low in the sky.  After spending so long on the first picture I quite enjoyed doing this one quickly and feels like more of a sketch than a finished painting.  It reminds me of that last evening before I left when we sat in a pub back on Seil enjoying a nice glass of wine and looking at those stunning views.  I don't suppose you could ever get bored of a view like this.

Festive Favourites

So, the advent calendar is out and Facebook is littered with photographs of people decorating their trees.  We are about to rediscover our annual month long obsession with Slade and Wizzard and I'm sitting with a big pile of Christmas cards in front of me ready to be written.  I'm not going to share the designs here until you've all actually receive your cards so instead, I thought I'd get in the mood by revisiting a few old favourites.

These pictures are different to most pictures on my blog because they're not actually places I've been to so they don't have stories associated with them.  Instead, they came from those books people buy you when they come back from a particularly scenic holiday.  Or the ones they get you for Christmas sometimes that list out thousands of places you're supposed to visit before you die.  Although they represent an immense challenge, I do actually quite like those books because they have some lovely pictures in them.

The first picture is (I think) Yosemite which is right at the top of my travel wishlist.  The second one is Banff which is actually somewhere I've been but I never saw this place.  I always think it looks like such a cosy little cabin tucked away in the mountains and a great place to spend Christmas.  I've no idea where the third one is but it looks like lovely snow to ski on - maybe popping back to that cabin afterwards for a vin chaud.

I've reprinted each of these pictures a couple of times over the years because they're three of my personal favourites so I'm sure some of you will recognise them.  I hope you like them as much as I do and enjoy the countdown to Christmas wherever you are.

Angkor Wat

Now I'd love to tell you that my trip to Angkor Wat was driven by a desire to see for myself this truly spectacular piece of history but I'm going to hold my hands up and say that wasn't the case.  In fact I never actually planned to go there at all. The last stop on my backpacking trip was Thailand.  I had planned to be there for about 4 weeks and then fly back home in time for Christmas.  I thought a few weeks soaking up the sun would be just what I needed before facing the delights of a British winter.  However, I was clearly misguided and my preconception that Thailand is a sunny country was quickly set straight.  Sitting in my guesthouse in Bangkok trying to figure out if there was any part of the country where it wasn't raining, I soon came to the conclusion that a change of plan was in order.  There was a poster on the wall of the travel center showing the Angkor Wat temples and a quick check of the corresponding weather forecast confirmed to me that this would be a much sunnier option than the Thai Island resorts.  So seeking out sun rather than culture, I hopped on a plane to Cambodia and the next day I found myself in one of the most incredible places I have ever visited.

Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world and the 2 days I'd given myself to see it was nowhere near enough.  As you make your way around, it seems like the place is never ending.  Watching the sunset over the main temple at the end of the first day was beautiful but it wasn't the defining moment for me as it is for many people.  It was these little pockets of peacefulness which creep up on you as you come round a corner and find the roots of a tree growing over, around and into a building.  They're slowly destroying the temples these trees, reminding us that no matter how much of a mark we make on this world, nature will wait for us to turn our backs (or fight our wars) and sneak in to reclaim it.  The trees are a part of this place and so far, the preservation efforts appear to strike the right balance retaining the historical monuments and recognizing the beauty of this destructive force of nature.  These drawing were done after I got home based on photographs I took at the time.  Although I'm not particularly experienced in plein air art, I can see the appeal in a place like this.  The idea of spending my day sitting in one of these forgotten little corners with a sketch book and a few pencils is quite an attractive one.

Those of you who have been to Seam Reap will know that it is a place of contrasts.  The aftermath of a brutal war is visible everywhere.  While rich westerners explore this beautiful monument, children chase them around begging for some money to help feed their families.  Victims of landmines watch you from the street as you walk into your air conditioned hotel without a care in the world.  And what really struck me about all of this was how self righteous we all get about it.  Even at the budget end of the hotel market I had a clean room with a fan and mosquito nets but as I sat down for my (substantial) evening meal I heard so many complaints from my fellow travelers about the children at the temple.  Everywhere you went, wealthy tourists (and however much the hard up backpackers dispute this, we were all comparatively wealthy) would warn you not to give them anything as "it only encourages them".  I didn't give them all money - nobody could do that.  But I did buy little bracelets and trinkets from them.  And I played along with one girls highly imaginative exchange rate scam.  She approached us over lunch on our first day and asked my friend where she was from.  "France" was the reply.  "Do you have any coins from France?" said the girl, "I've never seen one".  "Sure" said my friend and gave her a Euro.  Next she turned to me and asked the same questions.  I told her I was from England but I didn't have any English money on me.  "Could you change this for me?" she says, producing a 20p coin.  "Someone gave it to me and I can't spend it here".  I was amused by this little money making scheme and gave her a good rate of exchange for her efforts.  She was a bright girl who had memorised where each coin came from and who, with a different start in life, could do very well for herself on an FX Trading desk!

Beach Hut Bicycle

In celebration of his 70th year, my Dad recently undertook the epic challenge of cycling 1000 kilometers in a tour of Lakes and Cakes that lasted 2 1/2 weeks and took him from Hampshire through Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.  I'm not going to write the full story as he documented his progress in his own blog which you can read here: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/nick.keeley43/1/tpod.html

In honour of this tremendous achievement, I decided a picture was in order so here's his bike leaning against one of the Southwold beach huts.  Southwold was a particularly significant stop along the way.  This is where we celebrated his birthday as a family earlier in the year (more pictures of that trip to follow) and it's also where my Mum met him for a well earned rest day.   

The beach hut itself came from one of my photos from our family holiday.  I liked the way this hut was painted and I thought it would be particularly pretty on a nice sunny day so I've modified the weather a little from the freezing cold February day when we were there.  The bike is Dad's bike from one of his photos on his trip.

I'm breaking with tradition a little here as I don't normally share these pictures until after they've been printed as Christmas cards at the end of the year but I want your feedback on this one so you're getting a preview. It's a coloured pencil drawing which didn't scan particularly well so I've photographed it instead.  I set out to do this as a pen and pencil drawing but I found that I quite liked the half way stage before I had added the ink details and now I can't decide which version I'll print.  So my question to you is which do you prefer - version one which is the pencil only one or version two which is pen and pencil?

Looking Out My Window - Winter

Winter seemed to last for a long time this year.  After the Autumn leaves had all been cleared away by our helpful gardener, we settled into those months of short days and long nights.  The view in winter can feel a bit unchanging at times.  We get a lot of those grey drizzly days where the colour just seems to drain away from the whole place.  We also had a lot of rain but rain is surprisingly hard to paint so I opted for the grey drizzle instead.  The only real colour in this picture comes from the grass and the cars.  I do like the way the trees in the park fade away in the background in this sort of light though.  It got me thinking that it might be nice to do some misty woodland scenes at some point.

It's not all rain though.  We get quite a few of those bright frosty days and of course, the occasional dump of snow.  Being in the South of England we don't get a lot of snow but every now and then it descends in a blanket overnight (a bit like those Autumn leaves did a few months ago) and covers everything in sight.  I don't think it matters where you are in the world, a covering of snow transforms a place.  Being British, we like to complain about how it has stopped us getting our cars out and then we whinge about how South West Trains never seem prepared for this sort of thing and wonder why cant they run trains in the snow like other countries.  But I like it.  The lack of trains gives me a day away from the office and apart from that, what's not to love - it looks amazing.  I particularly liked the way the wind blew the snow onto the side of the trees so, for few hours, even the trunks were covered in a winter blanket. 

Oban

A few years ago my sister and her husband decided to relocate to Oban on the West Coast of Scotland.  I've had many visits to Scotland over the years but Oban wasn't a part of the country I knew so this seemed like a good opportunity to visit.  My other sister Anne, our friend Ellie and I decided this would be a good opportunity for a holiday so we embarked on a road trip to drive up to see Sue.  Now I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say Scotland is a beautiful place but November is a really stupid time of year to visit.  The rain was torrential and the non stop wind meant it was almost horizontal at the same time.  I'm not sure I actually saw much of Oban in those few days simply because the weather made it impossible to see very far even if you did dare to venture outside.  I seem to remember watching a lot of episodes of Scrubs though and the distillery tour was very enjoyable.  I wanted to give Sue a Christmas card based on our holiday and as entirely grey Christmas cards are a bit boring, I ended up with this picture instead which is based on a photo I found on line.  Personally, I remain to be convinced that Oban actually looks like this.

For my next visit, I decided to learn from my previous mistakes and made my way up on the night train one August.  August has got to be better than November when it comes to weather right?  And actually it was, it was a bit damp and drizzly at times but generally not too bad.  Sue, by this point had moved out to Seil Island a few miles away from Oban.  One day we went out on a sea safari which was a great trip and where this second picture comes from.  The lighthouse is actually stuck on a boring bit of rock but I thought it would look nicer if I moved it to a different island so with a bit of artistic license and no consideration for passing ships, that's what I've done.  Although Sue living this far away means we don't get to see her and Ian as often as we might like, it is a stunning place and I can see the attraction.  Right now, I'm wondering when to arrange my next trip up there and even though it's not quite booked yet, I'm looking forward to it already.

Barcelona

 I went to Barcelona with my sister this summer.  What an amazing city.  I can't believe I've spent all that time travelling to far flung corners of the world and never been to Barcelona before when it's only 2 hours away.  This is a city with everything.  It gets quite hot in the afternoons so we generally spent our days exploring in the morning and then having a bit of down time in the afternoon, often by the pool or the beach.  The Gaudi architecture and sculptures are really quite lovely, dotted around the city.  This lizard is in Parc Guell (although we also saw a replica lizard in the Chocolate Museum).  The photo I worked from to do this painting had a small child picking her nose in the background so I opted to replace her with mosaic instead - I'm sure that's what Gaudi would have done...

One of the things I like about Spain is the food.  There's something quite relaxing about spending your evenings wandering from one tapas bar to the next, sampling the dishes they have on offer.  This picture is actually an amalgamation of several tapas bars.  One place we went back to a couple of times was tucked away in a little courtyard and has provided the setting for this little scene.  The lamppost is from the fort at the top of Mont Juic.  We spent a lovely evening up there at a blue festival which we just happened to stumble across unexpectedly one day.  We'd been up to the fort during the day and noticed they were setting up some stages.  We looked it up when we got back to the hotel and found that Mont Juic by Night was starting that evening.  We headed back up there and sat watching the sun set over Barcelona with a couple of beers and thinking life doesn't get much better than this.  You might get a picture of that one day but my first attempt didn't come out quite right so you'll have to wait.  Once it was completely dark, we wandered inside the fort and watched Dani Perez.  I'd never heard of him before but he's an amazing saxophonist.  I bought both his albums when I got home and I'm listening to one of them now while writing this.

Of course no visit to Barcelona would be complete without sampling a glass or two of Cava.  We took a trip out of the city one day to the Freixenet winery.  What a surreal place that is!  I've done similar tours of breweries and distilleries in the past so I've got to admit, I thought I knew what to expect but it soon became clear that I was wrong on that point.  Our tour started out the usual explanation of how wine is made and what is special about Cava.  We then boarded the Cava train.  We've all seen those little trains trundling around seaside resorts but I've never been one one that trundles around a factory before playing a happy little tune as we stop to watch the slightly embarrassed factory workers packing bottles into boxes and operating a robot which I'm not entirely sure had a purpose.  But by far my favourite part of the place (aside from the tasting of course) was this car parked outside the building.  It was accompanied by two cava bottle motorbikes and a champagne cork truck.  Now my friend Sonya likes a glass or two of bubbly and if she ever gets married I think this would be the perfect wedding car for her so Sonya, this picture's for you.

  

Looking Out My Window - Autumn

About a month ago I went to the David Hockney exhibition at Museum Ludwig in Cologne with a friend.  David Hockney is an incredible artist and if you haven't seen his work, I suggest you look him up.  I loved his use of colour and thought he captured the light beautifully.  A lot of his work is clearly inspired by the world around him.  I particularly liked his pieces which showed the same scene changing through the seasons.  

When I got home I decided to start my own Hockney inspired project.  A week later, I opened the bedroom curtains in the morning to a lovely sunny day.  The sky was a perfect blue and the sun reflected off the autumn leaves.  It was perfect so I decided to start my project there and then, quite literally on my own doorstep.  Now I'm sure Mr Hockney could have done the scene a lot more justice than I have but I thought I'd share the results with you anyway.  This is the view from my window.  

A couple of weeks later and after a particularly wet and windy night, the scene had changed completely.  Nearly all the leaves came down overnight and formed a carpet which covered everything.  I couldn't see where the road stopped and the path started.  I went out for a walk along the canal that day which was also covered in a layer of leaves.  I even saw a Heron stood under a tree.  I'd like to think he was admiring the view but he was probably just looking for fish under all those leaves.  I took plenty of photos so maybe there will be a few more paintings from that day still to come.