Pen
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Roadside Banana
I have had a banana plant growing indoors in a pot for well over twenty years. Although it has continued to produce new leaves, in all that time it has only managed to grow to about half a metre in height! By contrast, throughout South-East Asia we saw these plants grown to many metres in…
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Canons Ashby – Book Room
Canons Ashby was a bit of a find. We were looking for a place to stop for lunch on a journey up north that wasn’t a motorway service station, and so decided to see what the National Trust had to offer. The manor house at Canons Ashby was perfect – conveniently situated and a haven…
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Kanazawa Castle
Castles in Japan are both quite different and very similar to those I am used to back home (in England). So for example, they have moats, big thick stone walls and slits through which to fire at anyone who is attacking the castle, just as I imagine castles must have almost anywhere in the world.…
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Robinia Tree
This tree sits in front of our house, and whilst I often notice and appreciate its bright green / yellow foliage it doesn’t normally stand out from the surroundings. However, the other day when I saw it standing nonchalantly in front of some rather dark and angry storm clouds, I was rather taken by the…
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Singapore – viewed from Marina Bay Sands
I’m not normally a fan of heights, but a friend had recommended seeing the view from the rooftop bar at Marina Bay Sands. The building is rather tall, and hence as promised the rooftop gives a very fine view. Somewhat surprisingly the bar is surrounded by quite mature trees, which I can only assume are…
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Gorse
This plant puts on a magnificent floral display in the most unlikely of places. Of course, gorse flowers are uncompromisingly yellow, so if you prefer blue or pink flowers they are not the plant for you. Luckily I’m happy enough with yellow, so I appreciate gorse wherever I see it. When I first considered how…
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Brushes
This started as a simple pen drawing of a paint brush – the brush on the top left is the original. This sketch is one of many drawn quickly during a lock-down art group Zoom call. Given how quickly the sketch was done I was quite pleased with it, but even so it was rather…
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Venice – Grand Canal
In my art group I have a reputation for drawing “a lot of detail”, or sometimes even of drawing “too much detail”! Often I think this criticism is justified, and I do try to limit the detail in most my artwork. Sometimes however I feel that the detail is justified, and I’m happy about every…
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La Pyramide du Louvre
This rather well known juxtaposition of ancient and modern architecture needs very little introduction from me. Suffice it to say that this combination has its fair share of both admirers and detractors. The contrast between old and new is somewhat muted in this picture by the twilight illumination and also by both being rendered in…
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Reigate Heath – Grass & Cow Parsley
I don’t normally see these plants at eye level, but that is the view I wanted so a certain amount of crouching down was necessary to take the photo from which this scene was drawn. Worth it though – the contrast between the foreground and the background in particular is very pleasing, to me at…
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Suzuki Hustler
Japan (or at least the parts of Japan that we visited) seemed to be full of these “box” or “kei” cars. To my European eyes they initially looked rather quirky, but after a few weeks they ceased to appear odd and instead many of them just struck me as having designs that were full of…
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Bullock
We often walk past a field used to graze young bullocks, who always seem rather cute and very inquisitive. Of course, one reason why I have a positive reaction to these cattle is because they are safely behind a barbed wire fence – as faithfully reproduced in this painting! It must be said that whenever…
Doodling ... 