Rosie and Jim Discover Snow Rosie and Jim give their Verdict of Snow Here on the Wirral peninsula we've had 2" of snow. Our dogs hadn't seen snow before, and so they were eager to explore the garden. They soon changed their minds, especially little Rosie who rapidly scurried off back to bed. The knitted patchwork blanket in the second photo was a bargain find. The wool it's made from would have cost far more than I paid for the finished item. No sooner had I brought it home and stretched it out on the living room carpet to take a better look than the dogs had claimed it as their own, settling down on it and preparing to snooze. They were quite disgruntled when I put it through the laundry rather than just hand it over to them there and then. On Monday 15th January, I returned to my day job after having been on sick leave for five weeks, having developed a horrible chest infection. I've never been so ill before in my entire life. I've lost almost  stone in weigh...

Here's my latest video, where I'm working in my art studio and chatting about art.  

Here are my two my recent paintings. They're both acrylic on canvas.  The smaller, oblong painting is called Into the Trees , while the square canvas is named The Nine Sisters. I feel these show a definite progression in my painting. They form a continuation of my Birkenhead Park series of paintings and sketches, and yet they differ greatly from previous work - less representational, more expressionistic, perhaps.  Anyway, I invite you to let me know what you think of them.   The two photos above show the fuchsias which had seemingly died over winter. Look at them now, in full bloom. Looking at the lower photo reminds me that I must rescue the house leeks which are in the grey Japanese bonsai dish, and which are getting swamped by self-seeded aquilegia. I've had that dish for decades - bought it from The Old Police Station, as it was then called, in Lark Lane, Aigburth, something like 30 years ago, back when Sunday craft fairs were held there. Below is a photo of ...

Bird bath with Crocosmia Lucifer, July 2023 Yesterday I visited the Wirral Society of Arts' members exhibition at the Williamson Art Gallery in Oxton. Entry is free, while the optional printed brochure costs just £2. The brochure gives each artist's name plus the title of their painting(s), and lists their fee. Most work here is for sale, and prices vary from a modest £65 up to £2,300. When I visit an exhibition, I like to do a quick walk-round to assuage my curiosity as to what's there. Then I'll do a much slower circuit, and take a longer, deeper look at the display. Quite often, with a local exhibition, I'll visit more than once. Looking at the work, I was sometimes able to identify which artist had created it without needed to check the brochure. So I was immediately able to recognise Alla Barkova's detailed tree drawings, Emma Dromgoole's joyously colourful nudes, and Janine Pinion's melodramatic, misty landscapes. But there are 85 artists taking pa...

  Urban Shore; acrylic on canvas; Birkenhead Park series; 2023. Big plans are afoot for Birkenhead . Umpteen billions are to be pumped into the area, old stuff is to be demolished and new stuff is to be build in its place. Some of this has already begun in the town centre, where long-empty shops have been flattened in preparation. Two new glass and steel tower blocks are almost finished. One is for council offices, the other is earmarked as a mixture of apartments, with shops at ground floor level. Do we need new shop buildings, when so many perfectly good premises have been vacant for years already? Peoples shopping habits have changed now so many of us shop online.  And what's wrong with the old council offices, where not so long ago £20,000 was allegedly spent on new carpet for the stairs? One aspect of the planned changes to the area which really interests me is the intention to create a large public park stretching down to the River Mersey. Currently this area ...

I came across this gorgeous vintage lacy tablecloth while I was browsing around the shops in Liscard, and thought I'd share how it looks in our dining room. In this video I also show you a couple of Richard's recent drawings, so I hope you enjoy this little tour of one part of our home.

  Here's my latest video, which shows how I created Winter Trees, an acrylic painting which is part of my Birkenhead Park series. The painting is based on a sketch done on location. Over the last seven years I've built up a pile of sketchbooks crammed with ink and watercolour images of the park. I enjoy sketching outdoors. Usually my dogs are (impatiently) keeping me company. They wait while I draw, gradually tugging more and more on the leads as if to say, "Hurry up will you!" So I'll quickly dash off the latest sketch and then we'll walk a bit further. Often it'll not be much further, as they promptly skid to a halt to sniff the next fallen leaf or twig. "Did you really need to sniff that with such urgency?" They reply with wagging tails and eager sniffing. Apparently not all fallen leaves are equal.

   This video shares my sketches from 2022, all done in Birkenhead Park. So you'll see trees, ponds, ducks, geese, people, dogs... All the expected activities of any urban park.  There are also a few sketches created as part of a group event organised by the Liver Sketching Club which was celebrating its 150th anniversary. They provided some models - a lady in a straw hat, a man in a tux. There was also a lady holding plastic flowers and a balloon, with a plastic crown on her head. Anyway, I hope you enjoy browsing these ink and watercolour sketches. Sketches are not the same as a finished drawing, as I'm sure most people will understand. Sketches are done swiftly; mine are often done in a few minutes, with watercolour added later in the studio. This is for speed, so I can do several sketches at once, and it saves having to carry materials around with me. When one hand has a sketchbook balanced in it, and the other holds both a pen and two dog leads (with tugging, jigglin...

 Acrylic on canvas; A4 size; currently untitled. I finished this painting yesterday. It forms part of my on-going Birkenhead Park series which I've been working on the for last seven years. This scanned image doesn't quite replicate the exact colour tones of the original, but it's enough to give a very clear idea of how it looks. I've been experimenting with acrylic lately, using them initially almost as if they're watercolours by applying them in thin washes then building up layers of stronger colours. The painting is based on an original sketch done on location in the park.  I'm interested by the pattens created by the natural shapes of trees, and the multiple colours of bark. Children tend to paint bark a solid brown, but if you actually look at it properly brown is scarce. Instead, there tends to be a huge range of silvers, greens, and other colours. The flat edge of the water's far bank is created by the man-made pond's contour. Here, I was looking ...

This vlog shares a cross-stitch project, a walk around my small urban garden, film footage of Birkenhead Park, and my dogs keeping me company while I paint in the art studio. An informal, chatty video, which I hope you will enjoy watching.