With the onset of showery weather it’s tempting to skip the weekly sketch meetings but these last two Saturdays I’ve been determined to persevere. For sure the white walls of Vejer don’t glow without sunshine but the brooding clouds lend a different atmosphere.
Above, the old town of Vejer from a roof terrace in the new town.
Left, the church bell tower from my roof terrace in the old town.
Both pen and watercolour.
Hooray for roofs and brollies!
This piece was inspired by the beautiful carved wooden horses of the Jubilee Gallopers carousel at Carter’s Steamfair.
I started off with a conventional pencil drawing, working from photos I had taken while visiting the fair in the summer.
Having scanned the drawing into Photoshop I coloured it. Nice but boring, I thought…and that stripy saddle looks a bit like a rib cage…
…so I kept drawing and developed the skeletal theme which I found much more interesting
I scanned the new pencil drawing into my computer, vectorised it in Illustrator, then coloured and duplicated it to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop. I also added noise to the image to improve the texture.
I like the way that it’s not until you look closely that you see the dark creepiness of this image.
I’m eagerly awaiting delivery of a sample of digitally printed fabric in this design….it’s been dispatched today….dead horse cushions, anyone?!
I recently sewed these two scarves featuring my dragonfly and 2CV designs digitally printed on super soft silk. What luxury….
The pen and watercolour sketch to the left was my first of the autumn season, having been invited to see the sherry grape harvest in the the Faustino González vineyard just outside Jerez.
The grape pickers moved too fast for me to capture with my painting hands!
The sketch on the right is of one of the old town gates in Vejer de la Frontera, you can see one of my fellow sketchers on the left.
The last sketch in this trio is of the Roman aquaduct in the beautiful village of Santa Lucia.
I recently designed the logo above for Alquimia (Alchemy in Spanish) , a magical full moon fine-dining and entertainment experience set against the beautiful natural backdrop of La Costa de la Luz in Andalusia.
The brief was to incorporate a tree and full moon theme with art nouveau style text as shown in the sketch I was given to work from (left) .
I duplicated the tree image and inverted the colours so that the moon and tree appear to shine in the night sky.
I can see all sorts of additional imagery in the finished design which reflects the mysterious nature of the event; bat, owl and dragonfly wings, the face of a fox, the figure of a woman, a chalice, a heart….
…I can;t wait for my first taste of the Alquimia experience tomorrow night, the menu alone promises many delights:
1. Roasted autumnal vegetable soup with a baked wafer, jamón lardons and angel hair garnish
2. Baby Green Leaf salad with sprouting herbs, edible flowers and white balsamic pearls
3. Fresh fish from the port with samphire, new potatoes, a lemon and chilli sauce and spiced smoked mackerel pate
4. Local Blue sheep’s cheese and alejandrina pear salad with organic walnuts and honey
5. Griddled fillet of local Retinto beef wrapped in jamón ibérico with a red wine jus served with milk soaked courgette fries
6. Wild mushroom, truffle and pine salted croquettes with an aged parmesan dressing
7. Bitter Chocolate tart served with orange wine from la Barca caramelized pistachios and crème fraiche
8. Selection of artisan cheeses with homemade chutney and baked crackers
9. Baby Guinness expresso shot
This summer I spent a few weeks in London which meant that I missed out on my weekly Saturday sketch date with the Vejer sketchers. Despite the busy-ness of my city visit I made a little time to go out with my pens and watercolour paints.
The gorgeous view from my friends’ flat next to Caledonian Park in North London
The clock tower in Caledonian Park
I love a visit to a cemetery; they inspire, calm and ground me all at the same time.
I made my first trips to Highgate (above) and Nunhead (right) cemeteries this summer and found both to be oases of cool, damp, quiet wildness in the hubbub of the hot summer city.
The chaps who were restoring Karl Marx’ grave very kindly moved the scaffolding for a while to improve my view and a lady dog walker told me that her dog once refused to walk past the spot I was painting which raised some goosebumps.
my first outing with the Vejer Sketchers
Late last year (2014) I was delighted to be invited to join Arte Vejer, a community organisation which aims to promote visual arts and creativity in and around the Andalusian town of Vejer de la Frontera.
Vejer Sketchers is a subsidiary group of Arte Vejer and part of the worldwide Urban Sketchers movement.
Calle Sagasta, Vejer, pen
Vejer, pen and coloured pencil
sketching on a roof terrace, Vejer
The sketching enthusiasts, from various walks of life, of different nationalities and ages, meet once a week; usually to draw in the streets of Vejer, sometimes joined by sketchers from other towns,
Vejer Sketchers with sketch groups from other towns at Concentrarte, Vejer’s annual art street fair
Calles Reyes Cátolicos and Rosario, Vejer, pen and watercolour
some of the entrants in Vejer’s annual patio competition, pen and watercolour
Ayuntamiento Vejer, Baelo Claudia Bolonia, 47th Sketchcrawl Cadiz, pen and watercolour
sometimes traveling to join sketch groups in other locations,
sketching in the rain in Bolonia
life drawing with a model,
charcoal and crayon
charcoal
charcoal and crayon
or even drawing each other.
watercolour sketches
In this Arte Vejer video, which features stills of some of my pre-Sketchers artwork, I talk (in Spanish) about my New Year’s Resolution to join the Vejer Sketchers, saying that street sketching in a group is brave and interesting and a great contrast to my usual controlled method of drawing and developing images in my studio with photos for reference.
chorizo, pen and watercolour
Actually, the Vejer Sketchers experience has surpassed all my expectations; the group dynamic is incredibly friendly and supportive and diffuses the potential self-consciousness associated with drawing in public places (safety in numbers!).
Vejer, pen and watercolour
I’ve enjoyed painting with watercolours since I was a child and the Vejer Sketchers have inspired me to try new techniques and different formats – my confidence, speed, motivation and skill have all improved.
hibiscus, pen and watercolour
Come and join us if you can!
Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads are a band of hugely talented and versatile musicians, one of the best on the Spanish rhythm and blues scene.
As well as revisiting classic blues themes and interpreting the music of more recent artists (such as Lloyd Jones, Los Deltonos and Vaughan Brothers), they play their own compositions, offering a rollicking live show to lovers of the blues in all its variations.
Back in 2012 Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads commissioned me to design the cover for their excellent third album ‘Jauja‘, so I was flattered to be asked to do the same for their latest release ‘Somos Más’ which celebrates their 10th birthday.
Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads are almost constantly on the road, which is what inspired me to suggest a tour bus for the CD cover. There are now several more ‘Blue Heads’ amongst their number, mostly woodwind and brass players, which is why they chose the title ‘Somos Más’ (meaning ‘there are more of us’). It’s also a nod to the growing number of people who are disillusioned by a corrupt political system which creates and perpetuates austerity.
The rough sketch above helped me to decide on the layout for the front cover which I then redrew carefully in pencil onto fine grained watercolour paper, followed by water resistant pen (below).
The landscape depicted in the background is typically Andalusian, it’s inspired by the view from my studio.
I used pencils to colour in a photocopy of the finished pen drawing as a trial and then applied colour to the actual drawing with watercolour paints. It’s a traditional and time consuming method but I love the warmth that hand painted textures impart to an image.
I scanned the finished painting into Photoshop where I added the text, taking the same hand drawn text style for the band name that I had made for the Jauja cover. I also replaced the white border with a black one (below). 
And then on to the back cover…which had to be the back of the bus!
The scene in the background is inspired by the bamboo fringed sand dunes of the Atlantic coast where we live, dotted with bright flowering succulents in the spring.
I worked from my rough sketch (above) in the same way as I had for the front cover, just changing the layout to make space for the track list.
That’s Mr Groovy playing his harmonica in the back of the bus (below)
Having scanned the painting into Photoshop I added the text and digitally collaged the CD covers from the band’s three previous albums and the sea and sky which I had painted separately.
Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads are working non-stop for the imminent release of Somos Más which promises to be a superb mix of swing, funk, blues and second line.
Don’t miss it!
Moo.com had a sale on so I couldn’t resist ordering a set of stickers emblazoned with my ‘circle-friendliest’ designs.
Yay! As they say in the world of Moo…stick ’em up!
These cushions are my latest cockerel fabric creations, made with love for Blanca and Alain, my dear friends and neighbours at La Casa del Arco in Vejer de la Frontera
Click here to see a photo of the cushions in their new home