Cross-legged

So much to talk about but no time
Anyway to remind myself when I look back at these entries and ask myself what on earth was happeningat this time.
1. My lovely sister’s birthday
2. My brother and niece’s visit
3. My sister-in-law’s wedding
4. Our 20th wedding anniversary
Thank goodness I am so busy with all these people that I love.
155mm x 150mm brushpen in sketchbook

Robin in his dressing gown

At last I have my scanner talking to my computer, so I’ll slowly catch up with the backlog of drawings. Now, back to the paid work.
170mm x 190mm pen and ink

Normal service will resume

Prompted by a solicitous enquiry by one of my fellow bloggers I thought I'd explain the quiet on this blog over the past few days.I have done quick daily sketches since saturday but I’ve been too busy with the day job to scan and post. Then yesterday my hard disk died on me, just when I needed it most for paid work. So yesterday was horrible. Spending all day at a computer repair company and in traffic jams on the M25. Ghastly. And loads of money. Though I did tell my knight in shining armour of a repair man that if I didn’t already have four children, I’d love to have his babies.
Today I have to meet my deadlines and still rebuild the house of cards that is my combination of hardware, applications and utilities, and the kids all need outfits for a wedding on saturday, and an event we’ve agreed to go to on Friday afternoon – so probably won’t get on top of things for a while. But phew my tools of work are getting back into working order.

Flo in her yellow t-shirt

260mm x 130mm brushpen and ink in sketchbook, coloured digitally

First football lesson

Xavier is the shortest in the class and these shorts are the smallest size they come in. The chaos of watching the coach sorting out dozens of little boys into their separate groups was a great source of entertainment to us mothers sitting on the sidelines.
60mm x 45mm ink

Back problems again

Flickr won’t work for me this evening, so an old picture to show how I’ll be sleeping tonight

Hugo reclining

380mm x 195mm pen in sketchbook

Brain food

170mm x 180mm pen in sketchbook

Picking pine cones

The walk back from school means that all around the house there are little collections of pine cones, acorns, feathers, teasels, scraps of bark. Luckily the school uniform colour means that blackberry stains on the sleeves are unnoticeable.
150mm x 120mm ink and watercolour

Looking over Jersey Farm houses

A rough sketch in the lumpy sketchbook on one of my three walks today. First I walked with Xavier to school. Then I walked Rufus at lunch time and finally back to school to pick up Xavier. I really want Xavier to think that driving to or from school is not an option. The walk to school is proving to be quite challenging, unless I’m lucky enough to walk across the park at exactly the same time as the other mother and child who go this way. The walk back isn’t so bad so long as I’m happy to take an hour or so rather than the fifteen minutes it should take.
Ink and watercolour.

Purple Tom

180mm x 260mm ink and watercolour

Apples please?

175mm x 200mm ink and watercolour

Venice studio painting

I took one photo in Venice of a team of gondoliers practicing for the regatta. However rather than starting a with my favourite photo I thought I’d get the drawing and watercolour muscles exercised with another photo I’d taken. This painting is wrong in so many ways, though I’m glad to have attempted something bigger. I suppose it’s that much easier with plein aire to forgive yourself and move on. Anyway if you’re interested in seeing all the laboured mistakes even larger, have a look here.
520mm x 330mm watercolour on Winsor & Newton watercolour paper

Pink t-shirt

130mm x 155mm watercolour and ink on Arches HP

Blanket of clouds

There have been patches of blue sky all day – apart from the one hour I went out to walk Rufus!

Rufus in front of Jersey Farm

190mm x 135mm pen and watercolour in small sketchbook

First day at school

Xavier is settling into school. They take it very slowly, just a few hours each day until next week – when he stays all day. Luckily the warm weather means that the walk to school is not too much of a shock to him – though he protests vociferously most of the way. We leave very early to allow time for the protests en route and I use blackberries, pine cones, hazelnuts and other treasures to tempt Xavier across the woodland park.
125mm x 205mm ink and watercolour in moleskine, from photographic reference

After the fire

Hill End farm. The barn is a skeleton after the fire. Most of the fields are brown now that the harvest has been collected.
200mm x 145mm watercolour in Roberson’s sketchbook

September sunshine

A glorious day, so I walked for miles with Rufus and painted this little sketch en route.
190mm x 140mm in watercolour sketchbook

Flo making a birthday card

120mm x 170mm pen and watercolour

Last night’s TV

The great thing about drawing from the TV is that the subject matter is invariably lit beautifully – something I find far too time-consuming to sort out when I snatch a moment to draw something real – in any case most of the low directional lighting in our house doesn’t seem to work – horse-play by children having knocked over and broken almost every reading light and lamp that we have *sigh*.

Just before bed

110mm x 130mm ink in sketchbook

I wonder what that was about?

I’m desperate to produce some paintings but my desk is such a mess I need to clear away several layers before I can indulge. This drawing emerged from the Edinburgh layer (which was below the Venice layer, which was below the client presentation layer, which was below the annual accounts layer!). I’ve no idea what the newspaper headline was about.
Pen in small moleskine

Rufus looking up

Pencil in square sketchbook

Hugo washing up

I slave drive these kids. Apparently none of their friends have to do any chores whatsoever.
Dried up pen in square sketchbook

Tom in hospital waiting room

Tom isn’t really as ugly as this, but he was about an inch away from me when I drew this, so the view was rather distorted. I was so looking forward to three hours of having no parental responsibilities after photographing Xavier in his uniform, walking him across the woodland park and dropping him off for his first morning at school. However I came home to Tom needing a hospital check of a footballing injury. Anyway luckily he’s ok, just badly bruised. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get my three hours.
195mm x 140mm pen, ink and watercolour in small sketchbook

Xavier resting

Xavier and I took Rufus for a walk on loop that usually takes me about 45 minutes on my own. Luckily we’d had a big breakfast and there were plenty of blackberries, as it took us about four hours with all the rests Xavier demanded, where he told me I should draw. Xavier starts primary school the day after tomorrow – and no I don’t feel in the least bit weepy about the last of my children off to school. I’m counting the minutes for when I’ll have some time to think without the incessant demands of the little emperor.
All 195mm x 140mm pen and watercolour in small sketchbook

Flo washing up

Brushpen in square sketchbook.

Xavier at Whipsnade zoo

Pencil in moleskine

Tom and Xavier in the chilly swimming pool

Sepia pen in moleskine

Train people

I went to another pointless client meeting last week. When you’re self-employed you really appreciate the total and utter futility of meetings – especially as for the self-employed, in addition to the time-wasting, they also cost you money. I do sometimes wonder how we human beings have created such great and wonderful things when most of the time we seem to spend great swathes of our lives in meetings.

Flo sprawled

Robin sprawled