mOO chilled on the rocks

Brrr.... things have started to get chilly! But maybe that's because I've been up in the North East... by the sea!

It was too cold and cloudy to get a nice shot of Tynemouth beach but here's some birds chilling out on the rocks:

Tynemouth has several beaches but the most popular is the Longsands - a big favourite with the local surfers. In case you need to see what Tynemouth looks like in better weather you can take a look at this photo of birds on Tynemouth Longsands beach at Sunrise.

You can also check out exactly HOW COLD it looks every two minutes on this webcam page!

Tynemouth itself has plenty of history pre-surfing being the location of the historic Tynemouth Priory and the burial place of at least three Northumbrian Kings!  It is also the home of the notorious "Black Middens" some terrifying rocks which wrecked plenty of ships heading in towards the Tyne and Newcastle.

Whilst we're talking about rocks here's a little painting I currently have hanging in my studio to remind me of the sea:

Cambridgeshire is nowadays a long way from the seaside but once it was mostly underwater and the locals were mostly swimming. The fens were drained a while back for farmland but I hear if they turn a few water pumps off then we'll all be back by the seaside again clinging to the tops of church steeples like little islands.

And speaking of islands... here's the finished colour print of the Ely Cathedral on the magnificent Isle of Ely:

Watch out for the ducks!

:D

P.S. UPDATE: someone has sent me some photos from the top of Ely Cathedral Tower, watch out for some more Ely artwork coming soon!

mOO in progress...

I've been very busy since I got my new studio desk so I thought I'd update with some work in progress pictures!

This is the Bridge of Sighs. No, not the one in Venice, but the one in Cambridge spanning the Cam inside St Johns College. Apparently there's loads of Bridges of Sighs all over the world....  

There is also one in Oxford, and apparently in Peru, and I'm pretty sure I saw one in Glasgow on the route over into the Necropolis!

Spot the Punt...?

You can probably get a pretty good idea of my artistic process from these pictures.

 Basically I visit the building, take a lot of photographs and decide on the best angle and any features I would like to emphasize.

Then I sketch out the basic shape in pencil, bending the building as I go. 

Next I fill in all the detail in black ink waterproof pen. (The pen stage is the one that takes AGES especially if like in the example above I decide to draw EVERY SINGLE LEAF! What was I thinking?)

Then if I'm feeling colourful I watercolour carefully over the ink drawing!

Here is a quick snapshot of a commission I'm working on...

And finally...
A slightly romantic view of Ely Cathedral.

I've visited Ely a few times but I do hold a soft spot for the cathedral since I went on Valentines Day this year to their free entry to the Stained Glass Museum event. I've heard another highlight is the tour up to the roof where the view across the fens is apparently spectacular.

The medieval cathedral is most notable for it's octagonal lantern which replaced an earlier tower that collapsed. It is my general understanding that early cathedrals had a habit of collapsing which is pretty much how the masons learnt over a number of centuries about structural forces and "not to build it again that way"! The current lantern is constructed entirely of wood which was something of a feat of early engineering.

There is also a historical connection to Northumberland in the form of  St Etheldreda.  St Etheldreda had the misfortune to marry a young prince who lived in the wilds of the North East. Sometime later, after presumably having had enough of running around Tyneside in the freezing cold with no coat on, she escaped back to Ely and set up a monastery in the Fens and lived as a nun. Which, lets face it, would probably be anybody's reaction to too many nights on the Bigg Market.

More info for those interested on wikipedia and the cathedral website.

mOO stall!

For some reason in my head Cambridge was the land of the summer sun! 

I mean it's "down south" right? So it must be lovely and warm....

Suffice to say I've needed to buy a market stall so I can shelter from the incessant downpours...

So here it is!

The new mOO stall! Those amongst you with more eagle eyes might spot that the lower (main part of the frame) is painted cow print! I've very optimistically left the roof tarpaulin off in this picture... 

I won't tell you about the downpour that occurred later just in case you wanted to preserve your sunshiney Cambridge dreams! :)

The southern sun must have influenced me a little though as I seem to have branched out into blooming trees and flowers. Here is a close up of some original works on last week's stall.

The market I'm on is the Saturday Art and Craft Market in All Saints Old Churchyard opposite St Johns and Trinity.

If you would like to visit the market website here is the link:

All Saints Garden Art and Craft Market

There are lots of lovely arts and crafts here, it's nice to be on a market with lots of designers & makers without competing against traders that sell bought in/flea market products at bargain prices. 

And everyone is so friendly!

For a selection of the other crafts on offer have a look at

Chris's Gorgeous Wooden Bowls!

Ian's Vast Array of Photographs!

Lots of Karen's Hats!

Extra Bit of Info: I've just been googling the All Saints Garden and It appears that the Church there was demolished in 1865 and rebuilt nearby. There is still the odd gravestone hanging around in the garden although I am assured they removed all the bodies. Can this really be true, I wonder, do they dig all the bodies up when they de-consecrate land and re-bury them somewhere more, well, consecrated? I probably shouldn't have started wondering about it but it came up in conversation whilst I was sitting sketching this tree sheltering from the rain.

As you can see the remains of what was probably quite an impressive and expensive Victorian iron and brickwork tomb are still visible entwined in the tree roots. 

And finally here is a close up shot of the sketch - just for you! 

mOO Beginnings!

Exciting Stuff! I've mOOved to Cambridge

And there are loads of cows here - check it out:

They just let the cows wonder about all over the centre of Cambridge, you come across them all over the place!

I've been drawing tons of nice buildings, the architecture here is stunning. Medieval colleges abound! I've tried to cover the major ones, the interesting looking ones, the central ones and the ones people have requested but if you think I'm missing an important one please get in touch!

I've also added some other places including a couple of pictures from my recent trips to Santiago De Compostela in Spain. These are in a bit more of a "free" style since, rather than using reference photographs, they are actually painted on location sitting in various plazas in the Spanish sun!

Also in more exciting Cambridge news...

I've rented a workspace, i.e. a desk, but in a studio!

Take a look:

This means I'll be able to do some painting again which will be great.

The painting above is a commission that I just started painting this morning! The mOOaRT sign in the background is for my new stall in the local art & craft market - pictures of that coming soon!