Horse Drawn Bus

I realised once I returned from Berlin that it has been literally weeks since I last made an acrylic painting. This is my latest, and I used several sources. It's a composite painting since the bus wasn't in the original phot of the background. I think that the two of them marry up rather well. The painting started as a desire to paint shire horses again - you may recall this painting: -

- which I made back in the Spring. I gave it to my Mother, since she said how much she liked it. I was visiting her last weekend, and admiring it in its frame. So this is what inspired me to get working in acrylic again. So, without further ado, here it is: - 

The Horse Drawn Bus

I'm quite pleased - it's certainly a much more complicated painting than the plough horses, and I'm really glad that I selected the background that I did. The overhanging leaves in the foreground are a really nice framing device, I think. 

Berlin Sketchbook

Sorry - I returned from Berlin a week ago, but it's only now that I've got round to posting the sketches I made.

Altes Museum

The Domkirche - Berlin Cathedral

Bode Museum - Museum Island

Brandenburg Gate from the West side

Hackescher Markt Station

Tram stop at Hackescher Markt

The Marienkirche

Oberbaumbrucke

Rathaus

Siegsaule

Tiergarten - Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven Memorial

Spanish Sketchbook

Last year, during my annual stay with family in the Alicante region I ended up making a couple of Acrylic paintings. By a curious process one of the pictures I made actually led to my discovery of Urban Sketching. This year instead of trying to make acrylics on canvas, I just took my pared down sketching kit - 1 packet of 4 black Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens, 1 new Daler Rowney graduate sketchbook A5 size, 1 half full Daler Rowney graduate sketchbook A4 size, my tiny Daler Rwney sketching paintbox (12 half pans + small brush) - three watercolour brushes - two rounded, one flat- empty water jar with screwtop lid. Actually, that sounds a lot more than it is when I write it out like that. As a result I've been trying to make a couple of sketches for every full day that I'm here. So, without further ado - here's what's in my Spanish sketchbook so far:-