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Begijnhof
Read more: BegijnhofThis 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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Coloured Tiles
Read more: Coloured TilesContinuing my fascination with the tiles used to decorate Islamic buildings, I find that my curiosity has got the better of me! You see, in nearly every case these tiles seem to be mainly blue in colour – whether for practical or aesthetic reasons I am not sure – so I decided to see what…
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Tall & Slender
Read more: Tall & SlenderI saw this handsome plant sitting in a corner of the greenhouse in the RHS Garden at Wisley. At the time I didn’t note the name of the plant – however the self-proclaimed AI on my phone seems sure that it is an Agave plant, which would be more at home in the arid regions…
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Blooming Tiles
Read more: Blooming TilesOr 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
Read more: MadrasaI 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
Read more: BendsThe 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
Read more: EspressoI 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
Read more: HohenschwangauThere 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
Read more: Alpine MeadowThe 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
Read more: Art Deco IVSlightly 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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Frame or Border
Read more: Frame or BorderAnother doodle. This one started in my head as a kind of Russian doll arrangement of picture frame within picture frame within picture frame etc … To start with things were quite easy. Working outside in, the starting point is a wall, then a frame, then a mount, then a … eventually I decided on…
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Croquet
Read more: CroquetThis 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,…
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Doodling ... 