A sketchy week!

Well, there hasn’t been an awful lot of art getting done this week but my poor Dad has been in hospital so I’ve spent quite a bit of time going between Leicestershire and Suffolk as well as looking after my boys and going to work. 

However, I have managed to finish off a circular painting I began years ago, as well as start a new sketchbook and go on a treasure hunt for objects to work into a painting and do my daily sketch, so it hasn’t been a disaster!

Here’s the strange circular piece:

I’m quite excited about the sketchbook work, I could do with having a place to experiment a bit more, to loosen up and be less precious.  I stopped at the Sue Ryder charity shop in Downham Market on my way to visit my parents this week and picked up a couple of books to turn into sketchbooks.

I tried to pick a couple that I thought looked old and less likely to be bought (sorry cricket fans!)

My lovely friend Jan had shown me how to turn old books into sketchbooks; it’s important to remove a page every 4ish pages along to allow for room for the book to grow as you cover the pages, and then once that’s done, stick every 2 pages together to make them more sturdy for working on top of.

So I started on the cricket book, I’ve begun covering over the cover but couldn’t wait to get playing so I did this on the first page:

I don’t often do drips but I quite like this!

I went out for a walk with my friend Jade whilst she was working for the council doing litter picking, and whilst she collected big bits of rubbish, I picked up all the little bits I could find that I thought would incorporate well into a painting.  I think we were out for about an hour and I couldn’t believe how many interesting things I found. 

So that’s something I’ll hopefully get done this week, as I plan to accompany Jade on many more of her litter picks.  We were chatting about it and came up with a plan that I’ll collect enough for a painting on each walk and then perhaps put on an exhibition later in the year.  Thought it might be thought provoking for the residents of my village!