I made this quick pen and watercolour sketch of cherry tomatoes on the vine as they were growing in my mum’s greenhouse.
As always…they were so sweet and delicious!
Tomatoes
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Category Archives: sketches
Tap
I had a lovely outing to Lassco salvage yard in Bermondsey the other day; not only do they have many interesting and beautiful objects which have been rescued from old buildings but there’s a splendid café there too.
I was particularly taken by the tap collection and immortalised this example over a nice pot of green tea.
My companion made a beautiful pencil drawing of another tap, both our drawings along with our models are shown below.
English Rose
This gorgeous specimen from my mum and dad’s garden smells as good as it looks!
Chumbera!
I’m delighted to have finally found a chumbera (prickly pear) with some lush new growth; the once ubiquitous and beautiful cactus is suffering an infestation of insects and slowly dying out here in Andalusia.
Moi from the gorgeous Ecléctica Deco shop in Vejer suggested that I sketch a chumbera a good while ago; he told me he’d seen a good one in La Breña national park so I set off for a hike on a really hot day search of it…needle in a haystack situation ensued. His next sighting was luckily closer to home and much easier to find.
I missed it in flower but hey-ho…the heart shaped leaf was a bonus…promise it was actually like that!
Skull and Flower
I have a collection of bones at home, a few of which are on display, including this sheep skull with its barbed wire crown.
I’ve been meaning to draw it for a while and this was the week…
The text translates as “…your poetic essence is still in the neighbourhood…” and is dedicated to a lovely chap from Vejer who lived just round the corner from me and who recently died.
I didn’t know he was ill.
If I had known that his presence was not a ‘for granted’ thing I would have made time to stop and chat over a coffee more often.
His observations were cheery, wise and gentle…his poetry is timelessly mysterious and beautiful.
Encantada de haberte conocido José Luis.
View from a Cliff Top
This is a tale of a wild goose chase!
Sadly all the prickly pears are in Andalusia are dying because of an infestation of insects but someone told me that there was one still alive on the coastal path which runs through the natural park known locally as La Breña, a pine forrest which covers the area between Barbate, San Ambrosio and Los Caños de Meca in the province of Cádiz.
So I set off to find it and draw it…
It was a needle in a haystack situation!
I did however enjoy the spectacular views from the cliff top and sat up there in a howling wind for an hour or so to sketch this view out over the Atlantic to Atlantera. That´s Morocco in the background.
I have a new tip off for a live prickly pear which is closer to home…fingers crossed!
Tajo de Ronda
To celebrate my 50th birthday on the 5th June I traveled to beautiful Andalusian town of Ronda in the province of Málaga.
I booked into the lovely Catalonia Reina Victoria Hotel and spa for a bit of luxury pampering…
….and it was lush. I think the anti-aging facial was a bit too little too late but it felt delightful!!
I painted this view of the Tajo de Ronda from the balcony of my room while I was sunbathing.
Dead Bird
I found this poor deceased little fella on the roof terrace yesterday morning and was struck by his dynamic pose so I decided to paint him.
Vichy Catalan
My friend Vicen, who lived in Catalunya for many years inspired this pen and watercolour sketch. He, like me, loves a glass of Vichy Catalan a delicious mineral water with a sweetish salty taste and gentle bubbles.
The bottle is made of gorgeously textured turquoise glass and as I was looking at the label one day it occurred to me that I could dedicate the sketch to Vicen by slightly rejigging the text.
I called the sketch ‘agua con guasa’ which means water with humour, it’s a play on the words ‘agua con gas’ which means sparkling water in Spanish.
Detail below:
Morocco Sketches
I was lucky enough to take a trip to Morocco recently, my fourth time in the country, but my first time in Chefchaouen which is a glorious blue washed gem of a place. Friendly, beautiful, full of delicious food and beautiful handmade items, I highly recommend it!
To be honest I was a bit overwhelmed by the spectacle of Chefchaouen in terms of committing to sketch it so I chose to depict a simple scene from the roof of our delightful guest house, Casa Perleta.
I met friends in Tangiers (I painted the mosque below in the time between my ferry arriving from Tarifa in Spain and their plane arriving from London) and we drove down to Chefchaouen together. It’s usually a two hour drive but the traffic that evening was ‘lively’, to put it mildly!
