Location
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Christmas Tree
The corner of this earth that I call home is awash with these things at this time of year. Often they are very pretty, occasionally they are rather garish, only rarely are they disappointing. The tree on which this painting is based was (and almost certainly still is at time of writing) in Place Kléber,…
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Quiet Street
The Christmas Market in Strasbourg was busy enough this year, but the punters tend to favour afternoons and evenings for their festive purchases, so earlier in the day it is still possible to find quiet streets even near the city centre. This street (Rue de l’Epine) was genuinely empty when my phone snapped this photograph…
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Torii Gaze
Originally this was intended to show a modern (so manga style) Japanese eye within which the mind behind the eye was reflecting on something ancient, a pagoda for example. By various twists and turns it is now a modern eye literally reflecting the light from a nearby Torii gate. However, if I ignore the frustration…
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Begijnhof
This peaceful courtyard is to be found in Bruges, a place I have visited, painted and drawn many times. This tranquil place originally housed a community of lay women called beguines, and still today it is home to a community of Benedictine nuns and other likeminded women. I’m not sure that my painting really captures…
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Blooming Tiles
Or perhaps “Blue Ming Tiles” – except of course these are not Ming tiles! This ceramic floral pattern is to be found on a courtyard wall in the Toshhovli Palace (or Tach Khaouli Palace) in Khiva, Uzbekistan. The palace was built in the 1830s, so I can only suppose that these tiles are also about 190 years…
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Madrasa
I had previously understood a madrasa to be a place that provided Islamic instruction, but in amongst the potted history of Uzbekistan that I picked up on a recent tour, I have come to realise that throughout much of their history madrasas taught quite a range of subjects, just like the old colleges here in…
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Bends
The initial idea for this picture came from a rather weak pun on the name of the car manufacturer and the curves of a zig zagging road! That notwithstanding, I had a lot of fun and wasted a good deal of time on the details of the car. It is I think a Mercedes-Benz 220…
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Espresso
I tend to think of espresso as simply being proper coffee – with nothing added to disguise, mute or dilute the taste of the beans. This brand in particular I also associate with being abroad, mainly because I have often been served it on the continent. In fact this make of coffee is also available…
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Hohenschwangau
There is a very pretty castle at Hohenschwangau (and of course another fairytale castle nearby called Neuschwanstein) – but this is the view from the castle, looking out over a swan (schwan to the locals) fountain – one of many swan motifs in the castle grounds. I had intended this to be just a pen…
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Alpine Meadow
The countryside around Füssen, near the southern edge of Germany, has much to recommend it. There are green rolling hills dotted with many picturesque lakes (mainly in Germany), there is the ever present backdrop of the mountains (mainly across the border in Austria), and of course there are the fairy tale castles of Neuschwanstein and…
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Art Deco IV
Slightly different from my previous Art Deco designs, this is a painting of the interior of a former house – now the van Buuren Museum – in Brussels. The house is full of some wonderful period art, but what particularly caught my eye during our recent visit was the light in the stairwell. Now, I…
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Croquet
This sport occupies quite a bit of what might otherwise be my spare time, so I suppose it is inevitable that I would eventually draw or paint a game. This particular painting is based very loosely on a photo taken during a recent match at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon,…
Doodling ... 