An Indian Influence

I bumped into a neighbour who was recounting to me his amazing visit to India, and I was itching to paint something inspired by his stories so I made these tiny paintings in Brusho.

I am very much planted in Blighty, I don’t envy the airport theatre and hellish sardine sky travel. We have plenty of big orange cats here and if I want to be death rolled there’s plenty of sausage dogs who would take great pleasure in nipping and spinning my ankles until bloody. There’s parallels everywhere, who needs to travel?!

Compass Jellyfish

The weather is warming, the compass jellyfish are swarming!

Of course I’m going into the sea, anything over 10 °C and I’m in despite the nasty sting of the compass jellyfish. These floating aliens are absolutely gorgeous and I am honoured to share the water with them. I’ve written about these jellies in my Nemo by Sea blog, hopefully this year I will avoid their painful embrace.

Blackbird in the Cherry Blossoms

I distinctly remember, in the early Spring after my beloved dog Nemo died, trudging through the rain towards the local bay and being struck at a blackbird taking shelter in a cherry blossom tree, we met eye to eye and it’s a very iconic memory for me.

I regard blackbirds as the super model of the bird world. Such poses, such vogue, this painting was again taking huge inspiration from Creative Abstract Watercolor. It’s not bad for a first attempt and I was horrible at painting anything black before (see here and here). When next Spring rolls around I’ll probably have another go at recreating this scene.

Sun's out Bun’s out!

I merged some techniques from Kate Rebecca Leach’s book Creative Abstract Watercolor to create this little rabbit. I’m really loving the shimmery gold, bronze and silver metallic inks.
I was never able to use them comfortably before but Leach’s book really takes the fear and pressure off you so you can enjoy the process.

This tiny rabbit painting is smaller than A7, I can’t quite believe I was able to shove quite so much detail into a painting about the size of two postage stamps.

Silly Spring Bunnies

Rabbits have always been a favourite subject for me, the fleeting, nervous nature, their gentleness … my first pet.

I have been struggling a lot with my art recently, feeling I have some element of promise but a lot of the time, not knowing how to execute anything I have envisioned. Lack of talent, lack of inspiration? It turned out to be lack of guidance.

I have a range of watercolour books and tutorials which I have leaned on over the years, I was stabbing around in the dark and on the whole only making a mess. But I found an abstract art book by Kate Rebecca Leach and it totally smacked the fun back into painting for me.

Creative Abstract Watercolor is highly recommended if you’re struggling like I was, this book is full of very basic step-by-step tutorials on how to build a simple painting and dream up lots of embellishments to make it special. It’s a light, joyous read with gorgeous abstract illustrations, bold and proud in their simplicity.

These silly spring bunnies was the first painting I made inspired by the book and they’re to me, a lot more fun and interesting than anything I’ve made in a good while and actually feels creative and not a copy.

Grey Seal Youngster

Here is a quick little painting I did for my NemobySea blog, this painting was significant for me as this was the first time I ever photographed a seal at Minnis Bay. Seals are a rare sight along the coast where I am, so seeing or even sharing water space with them is very special.

One interesting thing to know about seal photography is if the seal is resting and looking directly at you — you’ve disturbed it. As much as you want to look into their big ocean eyes camera or phone in hand, try to resist and depend on us arty folk to try and evoke that wonder for you instead … you can check out further information about this painting here at NemobySea.

Brent Goose

It has been a glorious, cronking time for our migrants from Russia the brent goose, the smallest goose in Britain. One of the best places to see them in their hundreds on the South East coast of England is between Minnis Bay and Reculver Abbey, so I make a special pilgrimage to see them each day.

Flitting gracefully from the sea to the fields in huge flocks, they often fly directly overhead which is an exciting spectacle, and what gets me up early and brightens up the gloomy wintery mornings.

I’ve written about an unusual lone goose arriving in early October on my NemobySea blog.

Jolly Jelly Baubles

With the glitzy Christmas lights overhead, and the gloomy water below I remember those life forms which for me are like the baubles of the sea. Although I was stung pretty good, swimming in the bays around Thanet have given me the cosiest memories to reflect on over the winter.

I wrote a lot about the different jellyfish I encountered in the North Sea, you can find a lot more information about them on my NemobySea blog.

The Fulmar Return

This is the perfect time to be posting about these guys, for most of the month of November I’ve been scanning the cliffs looking out for one of my favourite coastal birds and, this very morning, what do you know — THEY ARE BACK!

These flying trapeze, tube-nosed beauties often get overlooked as they are mistaken for gulls, but are actually related to albatrosses. We’re very lucky to have them nest here in Birchington as it’s one of their last nesting sites until Essex.

I painted this fulmar two years ago and it was a significant challenge for me being a white subject matter on white paper. If you wanted to learn more about this painting and the fulmar in general, head on over to NemobySea.com where additionally you can see what I look like in a swim cap (spoiler: really dumb!).

Herring Gull Heads for my Nemo by Sea Project

I have painted many local sea birds for my little coastal project, I used to struggle with them especially the beaks not looking right, but as the years have gone on, they have become my biggest inspiration and a great love.

Looking at pictures online compared to donning a pair on binoculars and looking directly at them has been a big awakening for me, I can’t quite express how I feel when I observe birds this way and whilst they slide down the blog, hidden away, I thought I’d bring a small collection back here to talk about.

If you’d like to see the original post for this piece, and another gully head I painted in a similar style feel free to visit my Nemo by Sea blog.

Overcooked Spider, but Gully Glory

I started this scratchy spider a while ago, and you may have seen it teased in my newsletter, where I started being a little smudgier with my drawings. The spider I totally overworked but from the ruins I took away a more interesting shading technique.

I use an eraser to carve into the smudges creating more interesting positive and negative spaces, meaning I can give texture to fluffier beasts and intense highlights to smoother ones.

Yellow Wagtail Woes

I’ve seen the most incredible birds this side of the year, wheatears, avocets but the bird which set my heart on fire this month was the yellow wagtail. I can’t believe these birds exist in the UK and I can’t believe my eyes weren’t open until the ripe age of 33.

I wrote all about those little fellas on my NemobySea blog, and I wanted to do a pretty exciting piece of art to go with my enthusiasm, so inspired by my sketchy gulls I aimed for a similar styled wagtail — I don’t think it went well. It’s unfinished and probably will go unposted but I feel I atoned for my sketchy sins with a simpler (and much less time consuming) watercolour of him, check it out here!

Sketchy Gulls

There’s been a lot of gully goings on in my studio, lots of sketches, lots of paintings, tons of preparations. I’m hoping to make 2024 a big year for the gullies.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for our big birdies, they are mostly seen as pests. Tearing open bin bags, being loud and stealing food from infants in pushchairs, the horror! I hope to master their deceptively simple form and do great things for them advocacy wise around the coast, they deserve it.

Bitter Wanderings along the Coast

The winter has been brutal here on the South East coast of England, but there’s still some amazing things to see out there which I’ve documented on my NemobySea blog.

When I’m sitting in my hat and scarf inside my own home trying to keep warm, I often envy the plucky coastal birds hopping and skipping about, especially those happy go lucky redshanks which I’m excited to turn my brush to – stay tuned for that!

September Scribbles

I’ve got very little time for personal art these days with my other projects, but I really love drawing and painting rabbits. So I thought I’d indulge myself and work on these guys over the autumn months.

I transferred these scratchy HB pencil drawings using my Huion light pad (yes, it’s still going!!) onto light 140lb Canson watercolour paper with black FW acrylic ink.

Rabbit Pudding

Whilst waiting for my watercolour paper to be cut to size, I’ve been sketching away on a precious friends tabby cat Pudding, and a rabbit of course! I’m using just basic Staedtler HB’s and 4B pencils on recycled 80 gsm paper.