Off to inspect Mablethorpe today as a possible retirement destination, as Bambi (the wife) suffers from some kind of allergy brought on by living in a rural farming area. Whilst on Holiday on the Isle of Wight the allergy symptoms dissapeared totally, so it would appear that the sea air may be beneficial. will report on the findings tomorrow.

CRICKET BLAH. Can you believe the cheating Indian cricketers,  Jadega said "he pushed me" ooh dear! with that tried and succeeded in upsetting the England team particularly Jimmy Anderson who went from hero to zero, to the point they lost the test. Have they ever seen a game of rugby, they would all be in tears in two seconds..  wimps.

This watercolour of his daughter Emma by Trev up to his usual brilliant standards. I study art and artists for hours every day and I have only seen a couple of watercolour portrait artist that come close to Trevor, and I am talking worldwide!! I know that art is very subjective and this is my opinion.

 Watercolour Approx' 11x8 inches

Watercolour par excellence!!!

You only have to look at this,

 My opinion again but I think this is the best watercolour painting of a dog  I have ever seen. This painting has captured the character and soul of Trevors dog Millie. This is Fabulous.

Funny title? not really, the tour de France is on at the moment, and you can only wonder at the stamina and bravery of these sportsmen 5/6/7 hrs non stop effort, brutal hill climbing dangerous highspeed descents (on tyres only a few millimetres wide) and very nasty falls,  makes your average footballers look like wimps, a quote from one of the commentators "footballers pretend to be injured, cyclists pretend not to be" mind you that can be said of rugby players as well, totally different culture and ethics. 

All this reminds me of a very special friend: Graham click here  (Biggles) and   here  for another view!! around the year 2000 he was living in Amersham Bucks and one friday he got on his bike and cycled to Holbeach,(about a hundred and ten miles) well actually Hovenden House golf club, took him about 7hrs and then played a round of golf with me....f#####g incredible!! by the way he is a rugby player........say no more!!

A Jolly good day was had by all (except the England team). On the way in to the ground, walked across the road with Michael Vaughan, former England captain, panicked to get my iphone out to get a selfie, by the time I was ready he was gone, shit!!!

A very hot day, not a cloud in the sky, funny thing was only a few miles east to Spalding the weather was wet most of the day,(the sun shines on the righteous) so why it was shining on me I really don't know. 

A group of people behind us were getting a bit vociferous (very actually) and annoying a few of the patrons around us, didn't really bother me that much, but eventually someone had had enough and said "why don't you lot shut  up and let us enjoy the cricket" I thought great, should be a bit of excitement here...nothing! they actually shut  up. The next thing I know they were being thrown out by the heavy mob and being interviewed on the street by the local constabulary haha.

Going to Trent Bridge tomorrow (thursday 10th July) to watch England play India at cricket, hope the rain keeps away, and hope the ball swings a bit so we can get a few wickets..for we are struggling a bit, against some pretty good India batting. Unlucky for Chris Froome today in the Tour de France, 2 falls and out of it.

Another painting of the fen partly from photographic reference and partly from imagination (artistic licence) a view looking south east from the second hide.

10x8 inches oils.

Got a really nice letter from Peter today, he lives in a lovely part of the country (lake district) at this time of the year at least,

The view from his kitchen window is beautiful, and this is it:-

get your easel set up mate!!

Yet another Willow tree fen pic', well, the fact that is it is a bit of an oasis around  here and I love the place, it is so peaceful,  (when I am not there) reference to the ignorant sod who ignored me, and wasn't very happy after I had confronted him about it, (he would have been even less happy if his wife hadn't  been there).

This is looking West along the track that runs along the back edge of the sanctuary adjacent to the river Glen.

I am definitely happy with this one and it is not destined for the dustbin, well not mine anyway.

Oils 10x8 inches. Using only black, white, cad yellow light, french ultramarine and naples yellow. Please don't worry about what the so called experts say about using black in a painting, the fact is it makes the best greens that appear in the more subtle and subdued landscapes in the northern hemisphere.

This is the photograph I painted the picture from. I would much rather have painted this "en plein air" but that is more difficult to do (for me anyway), and I am still trying to get it right, you will be the first to see a succesful "en plein air" from my easel!!

Just finished this painting of willow tree fen, not particularly happy with it, but it's ok.

This a painting of one of the photo's from my trip to willow tree fen a week ago oils 20x16 inches

Today I cycled to Willow Tree fen to take a few pic's:-

Fantastic views in the woodland trail, looks like the inside of a cathedral (thanks Dave) this walk is truly uplifting, and this view is created deliberately by the team for an experience not to be forgotten.  

This view is looking west from near the bottom car park where a nice park bench type seat has been placed.

You can see from this shot the tremendous amount of work that has been put by the team at Willow tree fen, some of whom are unpaid volunteers (one of them is my brother-in-law Ivan Crawford from Bourne), and put in a couple of days a week on a regular basis.

Well worth a visit (and take your painting/sketching gear or camera).

Painted this tonight, the idea came from Richard Robinson a very good impressionist painter from New Zealand, 10x8" oils (what else?) I am quite pleased with this, only used 4 colours:- white, green umber, naples yellow and cadmium yellow

Went down to Willow tree fen today to take some pic's and get some more inspiration for Plein air painting (sorry Trev)! haha

Willow tree fen "en plein air"  Oils 16"x12"

Image removed because it offended my artistic senses!!

My first real attempt at a "plein air" painting, painted at Willow Tree Fen wildlife reserve. Not particularly pleased with the painting only in the sense that it was a first effort, a bit of work done in the studio to finish it. This is the first of many I hope, and it really  is very satisfying and theraputic to do.UPDATE:- This one is now in the dustbin!!!!

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This was my viewpoint and my painting set up, and you can see it was a glorious day as a bonus. This being a 16"x12" painting means that the painting set up is relatively large and as such can only be transported in the car, as i would like to combine the painting with cycling I have made a smaller setup that can be packed in a back pack(including lunch etc).

And here it is:-

This rig is for 10"x8" paintings so from now on all my plein air paintings will be this size.

My friend Grahams birthday treat. At Duxford Sunday the 8th June 2014 

Biggles returning from another succsessful mission.

Graham before the flight, can't show you the picture after the flight haha.

Hi everybody, met up with a past member of the Monday art group on friday night(6/6/2014), at the kitchen restaurant in Springfields. Peter Power came down from Keswick with his daughter and a good time was had by all, Peter is looking well and was his usual cheeky self, and Harold  also his usual cheeky self!!!!!

I have put on a pic which I painted at the art group last monday from a pic from a magazine given to me by Richard.

I enjoyed doing this pic as it was done in a short while with no consideration to  detail......just slap on the paint and hope for the best.

I hope to be going to the group meeting tomorrow morning, I have spoken to Trevor and if all is well he will be there also.