Our first visit to The Redbrick Mill in Batley since before the pandemic. On a grey windswept morning it was good to see so much colour, artfully balanced by dozens of restfully grey sofas.
Redbrick Colour Swatches
Category: Art
Beachcomber
The latest round of homemade birthday cards include this Scottish beachcomber . . .
. . . and this Santa and his dog cartoon. Yes, it is a birthday card but it’s based on my great nephew Ted’s design for a card for the University of Hull, which featured his fantasy pet dog, Fudge, delivering presents with Rudolph. I’ve got competition.
And finally, for my brother Bill’s card, I dug out this Kodachrome of Bill, Dad and I with Vache the springer spaniel from a day out at the small lake where my dad used to go fishing at Terrington near Castle Howard in what is now North Yorkshire.
I’m the good looking one.
The View from Shelley
We’ve had three named storms in the last seven days and we decided that Newmillerdam would be too windswept and waterlogged for our Monday morning walk.
So instead we headed for Dobbies Garden Centre, Shelley, where we could enjoy the view across the valley of Shepley Dike through the panoramic windows of the cafe.
Art Bag
With Storm Eunice lashing the studio windows, this seemed like a good time to prepare for getting out and sketching when the spring weather comes, checking the contents of my main art bag. This was drawn in the 8×8 inch Pink Pig Ameleie sketchbook, using the Lamy pens and the Winsor & Newton professional watercolours that I keep in there.
All ready to go out sketching now , , , when the weather improves.
Blacker Hall Window
These are the last couple of pages – and the back inside cover – in my pocket-sized sketchbook.
The multi-stemmed sycamore grows behind the Halifax, last remaining bank in Ossett.
Trail Cam Troubles
A rainswept night by the pond proved too much for my trusty trail cam, the Browning Strike Force Pro XD.
Despite the rugged rubber armour the damp appears to have got into it.
Let’s hope that Browning can help me get it into action again.
Pepper the Lurcher
For a lean rescue dog, Pepper the Lurcher seemed remarkably calm but her owner tells me that he’s noticed that if he gets out any kind of pole, like a garden rake, she’ll go straight back in the house, so she might have had a troubled history. She reacted to bangs from the kitchen in the Coffee Stop at the Junction where I was drawing her and looked at me with soulful eyes when I tackled a slice of cheesecake. Needless to say she didn’t get any (but the dog-friendly cafe provides a healthy option canine treat).
Rainy Morning
Drawing indoors and in a rainswept car park: this morning’s rain meant that we didn’t get off to Newmillerdam. I was looking down on the cars at the same angle as I was looking down on the piles of books and CDs on the shelf under my brother-in-law’s coffee table, so they look like a couple of models.
Church Street, Haworth
The Main Street end of Church Street, Haworth, from a photograph I took in 2013, that’s the church on the right and, according to Google, we’re looking at the back of what is now Haworth Wholefoods.
Winter Sketches Comic
The gallery of sketchbook pages that I posted the other day reminded me of a comic strip. Haven’t worked out the story yet but the chair reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes story . . .