Paintings
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Meadow
The path along Hadrian’s Wall passes many meadows, which at this time of year are a riot of colour. Some meadows are mainly dominated by buttercups, and so are a vivid yellow. Others have a much redder hue, which my trusty AI app tells me is normally due to common sorrel, along with grasses such…
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Foxglove
For many years I have taken a walking holiday at this time of year, and every year without fail we have passed large numbers of these impressive flowers. This example is growing in the ruins of one of the earliest successful infrastructure projects in our country – Hadrian’s Wall. I was slightly concerned that with…
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Three Bridges
I have come across a number of places called Three Bridges. One of these in West Sussex is the source or destination of many of the Thameslink trains that pass through our town. Another in southern Belgium (and therefore in fact called Trois-Ponts) has a superb local beer, quite the find of that particular trip!…
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View of London …
… from Reigate Hill. Hence quite a distant view, in which only the tallest buildings in the city feature. Some would say that London looks better from this distance, although I wouldn’t agree – there are some very nice sights right in the centre of town. However, I rather liked the way that the horizon…
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Pub Sign
These lanterns hang outside many Japanese restaurants and izakaya (居酒屋) – a term often translated as “Japanese pub”. It took a little while for me to realise that these lanterns promised some kind of refreshment close by, but once the penny had dropped they were very useful when looking for something to eat or drink.…
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City Lights
The City contains a lot of wrought iron, some of it genuinely Victorian and some just trying to look as if it might be that old! This light is situated in a very new part of London, which I have just discovered is called Bazalgette Embankment. Now Joseph Bazalgette was a Victorian engineer who built…
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Backlit Crocuses
… or should it be “backlit croci”? The interweb seems to be divided on the correct plural of crocus. However, such grammatical issues are a mere side show to the main event here – which is that last week during seemingly continuous rainfall the sun actually made a brief appearance to light up the spring…
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Le Grand Café
This magnificent building stands in the middle of Brussels beside the old Bourse, and I guess once kept the financiers of the city fed and watered as they traded their way to success or ruin in the industrial expansion of nineteenth century Belgium. Fortunately the hostelry didn’t seem to be suffering any lack of customers…
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All Flat & Wide
These flat-crowned trees were a common sight during my recent safari experience. Other (to my eyes more normally proportioned) trees were more abundant, but because these flat trees tended to stand on their own they were much more noticeable. In pictures of the African bush these trees often appear as silhouettes, so it seemed natural…
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Room With A View
This view was a surprise! I had recently seen Robben Island from the top of Table Mountain, but it never occurred to me that the prison on Robben Island would be built to allow clear views of the mountain directly from any of the cells. Having recovered from my surprise, this view struck me as…
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A Door In Strasbourg
There are some very imposing front doors in Strasbourg – decorated but yet very solid – fine examples of French (or perhaps German given how often the border has moved!) workmanship. At the point where I had the shape of this image defined in pen I had high hopes for this picture. Unfortunately the watercolour…
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Arches – Bukhara
We saw many views through arches whilst in Uzbekistan – this one in the Kalan Mosque in Bukhara was probably the most dramatic. I was quite pleased in general with how the perspective works in this painting – to me it really gives the impression of a view through a tunnel. However, this effect is…
Doodling ... 