Ear, ear

red roof

vintage ice cream

awning shadows

woof!

This 'Camo' dog doodle is ancient but I thought it deserved an airing.

Hardedge

One of the growing number of cafes on Penge High Street.

Painted from photographs.

Back garden sunset

Another archive watercolour, this time across the fences in the back garden.  

Painted from photographs.

Roses grow on you

An archive watercolour made from photographs of a flower shop in Penge, southeast London.  It's now moved a couple of doors up the road.

under the bridge

A watercolour from the archive.

Two jars of water

A tip to help keep watercolours bright on Vine https://vine.co/u/1019355169420472320

cups and cakes

Heard it through the grapevine

recycled teapot

One of the drawings I made today at Alexandra Nurseries where I'm continuing being 'artist in residence' as part of the Sydenham Artists Trail.

Croydon Crazy Golf

A photo from tonight's opening of 'Putt Putt Two' - an artist-designed Crazy Golf course next to East Croydon Station.  The project has been put together by the Turf Projects team and you can find out more about their contemporary art ideas for Croydon here http://turf-projects.com/putt-putt-2/

coffee stop

Young watercolourists

I had a really nice time today talking about drawing and painting with a group of Year 5 children from a local primary school.  I was very impressed with the way they all worked and they asked some very intelligent questions about art and drawing.  These are just some of the fantastic results they produced by directly observing a selection of fruit and vegetables and using watercolours on real watercolour paper supplied by their enthusiastic teacher.  Great to see such budding talent!

The Alexandra

I was lucky to be given the chance to be an 'artist in residence' last weekend at the Alexandra Nurseries in Penge and this is a view through the plants to the former Alexandra pub over the road by the railway bridge.

Wesley Hall, Sydenham

One of the drawings I made on Saturday on a sketchcrawl along the high street in Sydenham, South London.  This one took about 20 minutes as we sat outside the pub on the other side of the road.

on the bench

The Dolphin

Paris revisted

It was exciting, and very flattering, to be asked if I would put some words and pictures together to be published online in this month's copy of 'DiscoverArt' magazine.  There are 3 sketches from Paris used in the article along with a little background information on how and where they were made.

The magazine is free to download at http://discover-art.co.uk/subscribe/digital/

Hello, hello, hello...

Something from the archive, the former Police Station in Penge.

Stanley Halls exhibition

I'm exhibiting work at The Stanley Halls in South Norwood on Saturday 12th July as part of the South Norwood Arts Festival.  Open between 11 and 4, there will also be live music and a gallery cafe.  Full festival listing here at http://www.peopleforportlandroad.org.uk/arts.html

Drawing to a finish

Yesterday the ‘Tour de France’ sped into London, finishing on The Mall.  I went along to sketch before it got too crowded, firstly at the ‘1000m to go’ kite and then just 150m from the finish. 

There were also some glimpses of the ‘Caravan’, a series of promotional vehicles which travel through in front of the cyclists.

I ended up just past the finish line where I was hoping to capture the riders as they slowed down.  I drew the background and waited until the riders came through but when they did, there was a flurry of media types rushing around along with support vehicles laden with spare bikes.

Quick snap

A quick instagram picture of one of the drawings I made today when the 'Tour de France' was in London.  Will add the scanned ones tomorrow.

blues and greens

Some recent Instagram shots.

Moving pictures

A short video I made on my 'phone at The Lovely Gallery at the PV this week.

The Lovely Gallery

I'm exhibiting a print at the Lovely Gallery in Sydenham.  And yes, it really is called that! 

Over 100 artists have submitted work for the exhibition which opens today and continues on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until July 20th.

In the 'Tipsy Garden'

A sunny corner of the 'Tipsy Garden' at the Grape and Grain pub in Crystal Palace, London.  The garden is part of a 'Patchwork Farm' set up by the local Transition Town team.  

Find out more about their projects at http://www.crystalpalacetransition.org.uk/

Heritage

I contributed the cover to last month's Croydon Citizen Heritage Edition.  The online version can be read here at  http://thecroydoncitizen.com/

Collaboration

I've been taking a stall at the new monthly Arts&Crafts market in Croydon and one of the other stallholders, Tim from Seldsdon Ceramics, very kindly gave me a pot to 'draw' on.  I've never done this before so had no idea how to do it or how it would turn out!

I scratched lines with a knife but the areas which worked best were where I removed blocks of the covering 'slip'.  He's given me another one to work on, although I'm not sure quite what to put on it.  Any suggestions?

See Tim's work at http://selsdonceramics.wordpress.com/