Ogmore-by-Sea, South Wales
Glorious sunshine, warm enough for tee-shirts and shorts and the sea as calm as I have ever seen it. Inspired by the drawing by Gilman of a beach comprising different marks that I had seen a few day previously at the Great British Drawing exhibition at the Ashmolean, I attempted a similar idea in felt tip pen of Ogmore beach.
It wasn’t until i had finished that I realised I had been holding my sketchpad at a very funny angle as I perched on the edge of a rock pool and that my image was really wonky! In spite of this I am quite pleased with the result.
As I was putting my pen away, my eldest son walked across the sand towards me dark against the glare of the bright day and the sea behind.
I quickly grabbed the opportunity to capture his silhouette before he reached me.
Keeping with the idea of using pens to sketch with (to get used to the idea of not rubbing out) I quickly sketched these pots against the wall of a house, again in bright sunshine.
I had a chance to try my hand at lino-printing something I have never done before. Here is my initial pencil sketch of the freshia (it was on the table so why not) that I attempted to print, and one of the resulting prints.
My children were much better at this than I was! They just dived straight in with carving out a pattern, with no real preparation. I think their spontaneity really shines through and have put a representative example of their prints up here to remind me to experiment and to sometimes take a more go-with-the-flow attitude!
Gorleston Beach, Norfolk
My youngest was engrossed in digging in the sand and so I tried to capture some sketches of him doing so. The whole process was complicated by the dog who kept trying to join in (the digging that is not the drawing). This resulted in a lot of frenetic activity with neither child nor dog staying remotely still. The only part that I ended up being able to draw with any accuracy was Joe’s knees which did in fact stay in one spot!
I also attempted to sketch the very tame turnstones patrolling the pier (not a place I was expecting to find them!)
They too proved very difficult as although fairly unafraid of me, they didn’t stop moving at all. I do think that I managed to capture a bit of their characteristic harried walking style even if a bit ineptly!
