Xmas Orange

The Orange House (Oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in)

I've recently been mulling over the possibility that the days of blogging are over; so many of the bloggers I used to follow have stopped posting on their blogs and have moved across to Facebook. For a while it seemed to be so much easier to capture the attention of an audience. There were giveaways for liking and sharing and a community appeared to have sprung up around artists' Pages. 

Then Facebook made one of its mysterious changes and it became really difficult to visit and exchange comments between Pages; to such an extent that the flourishing community spirit appears to have withered on the vine.

And now I find a small flurry of new subscribers to Boogie Street! Someone is clearly interested in what I have to say and show here, so perhaps I should shrug off my pessimistic thoughts and get on with posting again.

So here we go: in addition to having work shown in a couple of exhibitions at the moment (Gateshead Art Society's Xmas Exhibition at the Shipley and the Newcastle Painters' Group show at Jesmond Dene House - see previous posts), I had the pleasure of sending this painting off to a client in America this week.

Coming up: Another sale and another Sketch Crawl. Stay tuned.

Sketch Crawl # 9 : Holy Trinity Church, Jesmond, and the Dene

Churchill Gardens, Jesmond
(0.8 marker over two pages of A4 sketchbook)

I had a new pencil case (or at least an old one with some new pencils and markers in it) and the weather forecast was for sun all day, even if cold, so off I went on Saturday to Jesmond to meet up with the Sketch Crawlers at Holy Trinity Church.

Richard had the keys to the church and the interior was nice and warm. Outside as always, Mike was across the road drawing the church and new member Jenny was sitting on the church wall drawing from an unusual angle. Janet arrived as I got there and we had a bit of a shufty round the interior.

A sudden flurry of activity announced the arrival in the church of Mike and Jenny, shaking off some unexpected rain and everyone started to draw bits and pieces: windows, microphones, fonts ... But my eye had been taken with a building opposite the church and from the shelter of the doorway I was able to get this drawing of Churchill Gardens done. Actually, the rain soon passed and Anita, another new member appeared, having taken a peculiarly circuitous route from the Metro station.

By the time I'd finished my drawing of the end of Churchill Gardens, the sun was warm and bright and the others had gone round the corner to Pets Corner in Jesmond Dene. I joined them but found the animals annoyingly mobile. Mike showed how good he was at capturing the  likeness of various chickens and ducks, but I couldn't get to grips with all that movement.

Finally, I decided I'd go for the chicken coops and maybe include a hen if it would stay still long enough. As it happened, the hens all buggered off once I'd started and none appeared in the whole time I was drawing. Just as pleased, really.

Chicken Coops, Pets Corner, Jesmond Dene
(0.8 marker and Pentel Brush Pen in A4 sketchbook)