Awards, Sketchbooks and Spring

Such sunny weather this week that it has been garden matters taking priority. The winter has been so long that seed planting has only been an option for the last week or so and that means that the greenhouse is now stacked with seed trays full of potential for both veg for the plot and flowers for the garden.
I love the "patchwork" nature of this Snakes Head which comes year after year although, strangely, some of its flowers are now pure white.

Art matters have taken a back seat, but nevertheless there was time to squeeze in a visit to the Uttoxeter Quilt and Stitch Show last weekend.
I was thrilled that my daughter Isabel, who is eleven, won the children's quilt category - here she is with her trophy. I'm more proud than she is!!

Yesterday when Isabel was playing hockey I took a stroll down the nearby canal where there is an interesting lock set of 21 tiers within about a mile. This is Dunstall Park Bridge. I stood and sketched those wonderfully interesting shapes in ink pen in my sketchbook on a previously washed background and then came home and added the tone in paint. I really like this approach, particularly to urban sketching, and feel fired up to work more this way.
You have to watch out for being run over by zealous dogs, cyclists and joggers on the tow path but that's part of the charm!

This is another sketchbook page - an idea from Laura and Linda Kemshall. The edge of the page is textured with gesso and painted with Koh-I-Noor dye based watercolours (as indeed is the sketch above).

Finally Wombourne Quilters had a visit from Lorraine Bates and we had a go at making some ceramic buttons. I'm looking forward to seeing the fired, glazed results - here are my raw ones...but there are more pictures here