2012 in pictures

 It was tricky, yet fun, to cut from my photos my favourite from 2012, but I did it, and here they are!

Favourite Blake quote

Shack with the best view

Laughed so hard I nearly cried

Mountain air

Sam the ripper

French reflections

Cornish sunset

Mates in Devon

Autumn snow

Shepherd's hut times

There were so many photos I couldn't include! All the weddings, holidays, weekends and general fun had to be left out. It's not often I blog about personal things but I think this will be a nice memory for me of a great year.

Christmas time

 A few snaps from Christmas day are below.

My favourite christmas tree decoration

Feasting table

Handprinted labels in the pile

YUM

... and YUM again

Christmas kisses

What a lovely, lovely Christmas we had surrounded by family and animals.

Final Editions

It's the end of term and I feel oddly exhausted. This week has been full in the evenings but I've also been editioning my final prints this week on Somerset paper which is a looong job. Here they are:

Beachy Head

Devon Coast

Curlew's Cry (words by Alastair McIntosh)

Triptych

I've got a party to go to tonight and lots of Christmas shopping to do besides. I've got a feeling that I'm going to get geeky about present wrapping this year - will let you know how I get on. Happy weekend, everyone.

Monoprinting

I'm beginning (very much only beginning!) to get the hang of monoprinting. I managed 13 A2 monoprints this week - and the last three were starting to show what I wanted to say. I'm going to take the final three images (below) and translate them into etchings for my final piece (due next week).

Monoprint turned into an etching

 Apart from all this printing, it's been a busy but great week. We made a pie on Monday night, I did another photoshoot for the Marshmallowists on Tuesday and I'm desperately trying to fit in my Christmas shopping round the edges. We've also booked to go to Norfolk over year - I'm looking forward to the holiday as well as doing lots more sketching.

Chinecole, coins and landscapes

I got back into mark marking and mixed media this week. I also learned to stretch a canvas, using, amongst other tricks, the mighty mitre. Our lovely technician Emma helped me with the whole process and my resulting picture (partly created using coin rubbing) is a whopping 1x1.8m. The rest of the time I spent happily tinkering away in the print room.

Whopper

Bosham marsh

Hornberg runs

Savoldo's Wilderness with Chinecole

I'm spending the weekend in Hackney - looking forward to having a bit of time to catch up with myself and with friends. Fingers crossed that the weather stays as beautiful as it is today.

A Wales of a Time

The boy and I went to Wales last weekend (lucky us) to our much-beloved haunt, the Gower. The weather was beautiful, as was the light. We had a fantastic surf on Sunday - well, it was fantastic for me on account of being small and clean... we even saw a seal playing in the waves! Our trip, I think,  affected my images this week - I couldn't stop thinking about landscapes and light.

Gower sunset

Gower sketch

Swiss Alps in oils - Uncle Tony's view down the valley

Happy to be back in the print room

The storm we've been experiencing seems wild. I hope all my friends and family in the west country haven't been too battered by its force.

Scribbles in the British Museum

We did glass work this week (so cool) but the kiln is now misbehaving so I'll have to wait till next week to see, and share, my first attempts in glass. In the meantime, here are some scribbles done in the British Museum last Friday.

Elgin Marble horse charging

Goya's meaty bulls

God-ward man in spit and ink

I'm doing some more product photography for the wonderful Marshmallowists who were featured in the Sunday Times Style magazine on page 7 this week. Go The Marshmallowists! I'll keep you all posted as to how I get on with snapping their luscious creations.