Sunrise Wave; A4-size, mixed media, 2017. My week's annual leave seemingly passed in the blink of an eye and I enjoyed my time off, and took the dogs on several extra long walks.  I managed to get some of the garden pruned back too - most of the roses and the St John's wort.  The bin's full now so I will have to wait until that has been emptied before finishing the job. I went to the Tate Gallery in Liverpool to see the "Constellations" exhibition, which thematically links select works by well-known artists of the past century to look at different contemporary approaches to similar subjects.  The diverse exhibition brings together works by Lowry, Rothko, Braque, Duchamp and Warhol, and many more, and is well worth viewing. I also saw their small Roy Lichtenstein exhibition plus a third exhibition, this one by two lesser-known artists, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. After a much-needed pit-stop at Cafe Nero, I visited the ever-fabulous Walker Art Ga

The exhibition at Seagrass Studios and Gallery, in West Kirby, Wirral, closes this weekend so if you wish to view my watercolour painting on show there - plus lots of other truly lovely art - then be sure to call in.  The gallery can be found on Acacia Grove, which is directly opposite the train station. Birkenhead Park sketch, and my painting (centre by lamp) in Seagrass Gallery These last few weeks, I've been busy writing Morgan .  Explained simply, there are three ways to write a novel.  One way is to plan everything in advance, making detailed notes which are then followed rigidly.  The opposite method is to plan nothing at all, to have a loose idea and start exploring this through writing and slowly discover where it might lead.  The middle way offers a compromise between these two extremes; the writer has a few notes which log important plot twists and outcomes, but which also leaves plenty of room for flexibility and improvisation. Each writer needs to experiment and

Oglet Shore, Speke; Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2017. I'm thrilled to announce that my watercolour painting, shown above,  has been accepted by Seagrass Studio & Gallery 's annual open exhibition, which will run from Monday 4th September until Saturday 7th November. You can find Seagrass at #1 Acacia Grove, West Kirby, Wirral.  It's open from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. The framed painting will be available to buy, price £120.

Heath in Summer; Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2017. I have now bought kitchen paint.  I have yet to paint the kitchen.  Other things have been taking my time, such as writing Morgan: An Artisan-Sorcerer Story, and beavering away in my art studio. On the easel, with only its sky painted so far, is Liverpool Waterfront #5 , which is in oils.  But I'm already moving away from painting the iconic view of the city as seen from the River Mersey, and have been looking elsewhere along the river for material.  Oglet Shore, Speke is a watercolour of an often-overlooked little beach and meadow area close to the John Lennon Airport.  Local legend has it that George Harrison and the two McCartney brothers used to play here as small children, but then so did countless other kids and this isn't why I painted it.  I chose the area as it offers a contrast to other, more obvious sections of the Mersey.  At Oglet, you could almost be in the countryside - if it wasn't for planes regularly thun

Abstract Landscape; watercolour; 2017. The 70th annual exhibition of the Deeside Art Group took place earlier in July, and so I headed off to Westbourne Hall in West Kirby to see this.  My personal favourite piece in the show was Tony Jalland's The Lost Brooch , which was a beautifully observed gouache painting of shells with, as the title suggests, a brooch tucked in amongst them. Having left Westbourne Hall, I then saw a small exhibition of print art at the library, then headed off into the sand dunes on the beach to do some sketching.  There was hardly anyone around, but the minute I was sprinkled with flaky pastry crumbs and escaping custard from the cake I'd treated myself to, about  a million ramblers promptly trudged past.  Liverpool Waterfront 2; oil on canvas; 2017. Here's the next in my series of paintings themed on the River Mersey, which I completed recently.  This is not a good photo but you can get the general idea, at least.  A problem with my li

Black Pearl Driftwood Pirate Ship at New Brighton Here's my latest oil painting, which is of the Black Pearl, a for-fun-only pirate ship made from driftwood by volunteers.  The ship rests on New Brighton beach, close to the promenade leading from the town centre to Vale Park.  The rigging is formed from assorted lengths of rope, while the sails are really just old rags lashed into position with string. I recently made a watercolour sketch of this ship, and have visited it a couple of times recently too. If you're interested in seeing how this painting was done, watch the YouTube video below, then please subscribe to my channel.

The weekend of 10 th and 11 th of June saw me visiting art exhibition after art exhibition, as I saw as much as I was able of the Wirral Open Studio Tour.   This annual event encourages local artists and crafts-workers to put their work on display by inviting the public into their homes and studios, which ranged from ‘proper’ studios and commercial galleries to converted garden sheds and temporary displays set up on kitchen tables.   Several community centres plus the Williamson Art Gallery also play host to group exhibitions.     A free booklet lists all participants and has handy maps to aid intrepid explorers.   There is no fee to visit any of these exhibitions, and while the exhibitors pay a modest fee to take part and be included in the event’s publicity, they are also able to sell work directly to the public. I had a fabulous time seeing some great new art, saying hi to some old friends and meeting a few creators who I’d previously only known through social med

I thought I'd show off this amazing spider plant. I bought it about four years ago as a tiny thing with only a few spindly leaves, for the grand total of 50p.  It obviously likes this sunny spot by a bay window.  The elephant table is African, made from mahogany.  I bought that around 1986/7, from a vintage furniture store on Aigburth Road not long after I moved into my little flat near to Lark Lane, which is just off Aigburth Road.  The elephants used to have tiny tusks but my cat Rhiannon kept chewing them, and as they were already loose I removed them in case they got stuck in her throat and caused injury. Here's the long-awaited, new trailer for the Artisan-Sorcerer Series, released today. I hope you like the music, which I think suits the series well and brings to mind Bethany Rose's story especially.  Her story will continue with the forthcoming 5th novel which I'm currently writing the first draft of.  Will this be the last in the series?  Maybe.  I

Here's a photo of me, standing on the old Roman wall in Chester.  Richard and I were there on Tuesday, pottering round the city's various junk shops and art galleries. We went into Alison Bradley 's artist-owned gallery, and enjoyed a pleasant chat with her partner, who told us Alison uses a combination of sketching and photography as a basis for many of her paintings.  We both really liked her work, and it was interesting to see her treatment of the Liverpool waterfront which I've only recently painted.  Her studies of working sheepdogs and the landscapes of Wirral and north Wales are admirable. Later, we had the real pleasure of listening to Ed Alleyne-Johnson busking on his electric violin in the cathedral square, near the bus station. My old pal Sylvia Taylor has been on TV.  As I don't own a television set I've been unable to watch her work as a support artist in Little Boy Blue , a four-part drama about the real-life murder of a Liverpool boy, bu