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...

   I hope you enjoy listening to my reading of the opening section of Bethany Rose, from my Artisan-Sorcerer series of short stories and novels. I recorded it using a Fifine microphone, which simply plugs into a port in my desktop computer. This gives a noticeably better sound than the in-built mic, and has proved its worth already. The camera used is the PC's own. I have an Asus all-in-one desktop, and the camera has been placed underneath the screen. It would have been much better if it had been placed at the top of the screen, as this low angle gives an unfortunate view of my chin, even after I've raised the whole thing up considerably by stacking books underneath it. Oh well, that's just one more design flaw to look out for next time I'm buying a PC, whenever that might be.

 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 ...

  I hope you enjoy viewing this slideshow of my photographs, which were all taken in Birkenhead Park over the last year.  This forms part of my Birkenhead Park series of sketches, paintings and photos. Don't ask me how long this series will continue on for, as I don't know the answer to that one. It'll last as long as it lasts. It began not long after we moved to this area, and maybe it will continue until we move away again, whenever that might be. We're not planning to move in the near future, anyway, but having experienced the fragility of the "best laid plans of mice and men" I don't rule anything out. The camera used for these photos is an old Kodak Easyshare. Okay, it's not a model which would attract a professional photographer but for my needs it has proven to be more than adequate. Plus it fits in a pocket readily, so it's easy to carry around. The camera is obsolete now, of course. I bought it around 20 years ago, and technology has chang...

  Here's a very short video showing New Brighton beach, our dogs, the driftwood pirate ship which is slowly being rebuilt, (for the 3rd time?), and then Vale Park which houses various fun sculptures and fairy houses. Vale Park is also home to the Mersey Arts Zone, where local artists exhibit and sell their work. There's a pleasant café, too, where on summer days you can sit outside and enjoy the formal garden.

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.