So 2018

Looking back over 2018, another year of change.

We moved back to Aberdeen, which initially seemed grim but after six months started to work out as we both got new jobs. I also started doing freelance museum work and training which is fun, but does mean I have to do a tax return. On the plus side I get to meet interesting new people and go to new places and do new things. And am financially solvent so can finally buy all those things I have my eye on.

We are still in the old flat, but it is redecorated and has a new bathroom. Maybe look at buying a house next year although the housing market is pretty dead, for various reasons. I might also need a new car, although I love my old car he is becoming a bit of a money pit. I loathe the expense and stress of buying a new car (or a new house).

We did not have any exciting holidays this year, which I plan to remedy next year (brexit willing) We had lots of events with Alistair’s family though. Next year I want to revisit Paris, Rheims and go to Orkney. And have a summer and october holiday. And spend more time seeing people in London.

I discovered, moving back that a lot of my friends are now engulfed by babies. We also joined a gaming club and have met some great new people there. I also have new friends from my work, who are lots of fun.

I have started doing a lot more art in all kinds of forms, from painting to printing to try and find what I enjoy. Foodwise, my projects were Italian and Eastern European. Next year, I think more printing classes and the food project is The Middle East. I also need to get back into sewing. I think rather than retro sewing I might try some more avant garde or Japanese sewing patterns.

I am avoiding any personal resolutions, and my reading plan is Whatever I Feel Like.

Home bookbinding

Experimenting with my new book on bookbinding, making your own sketchbooks and notepads. This one is a bit freeform with cardboard cover printed in gold ink using rubber stamp.

Street Fashion returns

Anyone been missing Street Fashion posts? I despaired of seeing anyone as outrageously fashion forward as in London. Then, yesterday bingo with this lady in the queue in front of me in M&S. Cool lady in her 50s rocking a orange pudding basin bob and chic punk inspired ensemble with black lipstick. 

Pictish Printing 2

A pictish knot, tricky but fun to draw and carve out!

Pictish Printing

Some home printing with Pictish beasts. Could be part of my printing course project next year. Quite obsessed by Pictish motifs and standing stones.

Baronial Aberdeen

Citadel Building 

As I was driving down Union Street the other day it struck me how fantastic the building that terminates it is. This is the Salvation Army Citadel, a Scottish Baronial fantasy of turrets and towers designed by James Souttar in 1893. Medieval walls were discovered under the building as it sits in the heart of early Aberdeen.

Wardrobe Update

So, over the last two years I have almost entirely renewed my wardrobe, mostly shopping second hand.
Lately I have been doing this in a project based way. I started with skirts which I often buy second hand as I am a standard 14 in skirts and apparently skirts are not popular now so are often in charity shops. Does everyone wear jeans now? Trousers? Leggings? Who knows. I like a wool or tweed skirt so happy hunting.
My next target was shoes. After my catastrophic foot injury I avoided buying shoes for several years but now I am back in the game. I got two pairs of smart yet comfy heels from Ecco for work and occassions and a pair of brown ankle boots in a giant garden centre ( always great for outdoor wear). I am awaiting a pair of Ecco knee boots from ebay, fingers crossed.
My latest project is nightwear. Following two pairs of disasterously unflattering and sweaty satin pyjamas I am trying the combo cami/ pyjama trousers thing. Hoping they will be comfy but also look ok, unlike my much loved homemade sack like nighties and ‘I don’t care as long as I’m warm’ pyjamas for staying with people who never put the heating on. A godsend for the last two christmases, coupled with fluffy socks.
And digging out things you have not worn for years I found, and loved wearing to an xmas party, a navy velvet dress with sheer back, impulse buy from Monsoon about five years ago. If you love it, keep it and it will feel good again. My oldest item is a purple velvet jacket I bought about fifteen years ago, still great.

Squashes in the Supermarket

Box of squashes

And, just for a change, not printing, but my new many coloured felt pens. This is a lovely pumpkin display in my supermarket. The fruit and veg section is very inspirational for art, I like to take photos of the trays and crates.

And yet more printing

The last week of printing before xmas and experiments in colour! 

More Printing

Christmas Prep

Trying to be organised for Christmas now the family birthdays are over...

My annual calendar has been ordered; this year is architecture in Aberdeen and Scotland. Featuring drawings and paintings of places I know or visited in 2019.

I am also upping the ante by using my new printmaking skills to create a christmas card design. Alistair likes to keep things traditional so I am going with a linocut of a robin. Bird prints seem to be super popular in my printmaking class.

My mother in law has already made her christmas cake but I usually go for a dundee cake, which is lighter and does not require icing, or making massively in advance.

Does anyone else do any christmas making?

A week of Eastern European food

I got lots of Eastern European, mainly Polish, food in this week. Its a great cookery project because it is really different and not a cuisine I have eaten before.

First meal was chicken schnitzel with potato rosti and brined gherkins. Flatten chicken breasts brutally and then dip in egg and tgen garlicky herby breadcrumbs. Fry and finish off in hot oven. I bought the rosi. The checken was delicious, the gherkins tasted like very salty gherkins.

Second meal was mushroom and saurkraut stuffed pierogi with sour cream, bacon and onion topping. I bought all these. Must say I preferred the cheese pierogi. Pierogi are like chunkier, chewier ravioli.
For pudding pancakes stuffed with soft cheese and raisins, with tea to drink, which were great.

I picked up loads of interesting foods and ingredients for this just in my normal supermarket.

Wee shops, Old Aberdeen

I liked these quirky shops in a pair of small buildings in Old Aberdeen. Also they are not pretentious but an Indian takeaway and a barbers, the sort of useful shops people need. I saw these through the window of a very nice cafe, slightly hipster, over the road where we were having lunch. 

Home Printing Experiments

Three home printing experiments...which do you like? Two are hand coloured in inks.

Finch in the Berries

This goldfinch was enjoying the rowan berries in the tree outside our bedroom window. There are always tiny birds in the tree such as blue tits. I liked the simple range of colours here.

Printing Press

I did a drawing of the printing press at my class, which I am deeply obsessed by. Its an enormous, grotesquely decorated Victorian behemoth of a machine. I might do a print of it.

I am also feeling inspired by Japanese woodblock prints...

Printmaking 3

This week’s printmaking ( yes, I missed week 2 as I was at a lecture on historic bookbinding ) was linocut. This is a loose and crazy linocut of an orchid in Duthie Park Wonter Gardens, printed in varied coloured ink. 

Linocut is really relaxing as you just gouge the image out of a square of lino, ink it and then print. It is very physical, graphic and fun.

Next week is reductive linocut where you cut successive layers to print with different colours.

Charity Shop Haul

As I was working at Braemar Castle yesterday, I braved the torrential rain to pop into my favourite charity shop in Ballater.

I got...
Ex M and S Classic range brown tweed skirt £5
Maxmara black and white tweed skirt £5.50
Amazing designer deal, although zip is tricky and could not be replaced due to fragile fabric.
I might sew another zip inside the first zip. First zip sticks and does not go down very far, requiring a wrestle of skirt up over hips.
Impressionist Drawings exhibition catalogue £1.50.

The Clan Cancer charity shop always has the best stuff!
Do you have a favourite charity shop?

Ukrainian Food 2

Today’s Ukrainian recipe is Borscht, a soup or stew.

Here you see the chicken stock, (which is ideally actually made with beef) of chicken pieces, onion and bay leaf, simply boiled together for one hour. The frying pan has onion fried with red pepper and grated carrot. After one hour the fried veggies are added to the stock together with potato and beetroot. At end add kidney beans, garnish with sour cream and dill.

We serve with beer. A cheap, hearty and healthy dinner. 

Printmaking Class 1: Monotype

These are my two favourite direct print monotype or one-off prints from my first printmaking class.The top one is taken from memory from a painting of irises I did and the second a version of the  Blairs College picture from an earlier post. I like the messy, textural, sketchy quality of the print technique. In prints, everything comes out in reverse!

Eastern European Food Project

As it is Autumn I decided to start my new Eastern European cookery project. It seems appropriate for  the newly cold weather. I am using the Mamushka book by the brilliantly named Olia Hercules. This concentrates on Ukranian food with forays into Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Ossetia, Azerbaijan, Bessarabia, Tartar and Moldova so maybe this is more FSU.

My first recipe was the classic chicken soup with dumplings. You make a basic chicken stock with chicken pieces, onion, carrot and bay. After an hour of simmering, remove the bones and shred the chicken into it, add spring onion, dill and carrot slices and then boil the plain dumplings in it. Great for a cold night.

Next up the classic borscht...

Papal Tower

If you love architecture, look up! Roofline of Blairs College near Aberdeen.  A spectacular crown style tower top with a papal crown on it just for good measure. The New College was completed in 1897 in the baronial gothic style.

Art Update

Apologies, no picture as I have been working all weekend, but now get weekends off until April!

So a brief update on my art doings...

I signed up for a new art evening class in Printmaking. The first one is on wednesday and I am very excited to be trying something new. I have not done any printmaking for many years but I always enjoyed it.

Also treated myself to a lovely art book: The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair. A fascinating book on the history, science, psychology and art uses of all the named colours and pigments. From soothing pink for prisons to poisonous green wallpaper. Highly recommended.

Vegetarian food

Yes, I know it’s only a photo, sorry. Yesterday we went out for lunch at Wagamama and I had this delicious ramen soup with crispy spicy silken tofu, which I had not tried before but was nice like savoury blancmange.

This week also features unusual vegetarian food in the form of spinach and mushroom pie and pasta with potato, green beans and pesto. 

Autumn flowers

I’m not sure what these hero flowers are but they have been flowering for months outside our flat door and on the dust like soil that you get on a site that used to be a bus depot.

I love painting abstract type plants in bold colours, crowding in the picture. This is a small, square picture in goache, which I like for small, neat work.

Autumn fashion and so on.

Autumn is here! I really love autumn with the colourful trees and berries and the long crisp summer days.
I have also replenished my wardrobe for autumn with:

A 1970s brown pencil skirt with pockets from eBay (why do clothes these days not have pockets?)
A chunky white 70s style jumper from Sainsburys sale(a Scandicrime themed jumper)
A neon yellow/green cashmere jumper from John Lewis sale (fun bright colours for the cold)
Orange nail polish by Essie from Boots (I like to seasonally theme my nail polish)

In autumn I feel drawn to wearing the colours of autumn; brown, grey, orange, cream, yellow, red.
I think psychologically they are cosy colours which evoke warmth. And I love warm, chunky and woolly fabrics, big boots, coats and tailored jackets. This year I have pretty much renewed my whole wardrobe, retaining only a few very favourite items. In general my wardrobe has become more casual, more different colours and more practical and relaxed. I feel these days you can also combine things fairly freely in an avant garde way.

Trades Hall

I suppose this is part of my series on challenging modern buildings. This is the new Trades Hall on Holburn Street, Aberdeen, seen from the waiting room of my dentist.

The outside is uncompromising, if interesting in concrete. The inside is a set of beautiful top lit spaces. They reused the original stained glass windows.

It occurs to me you can design a building starting from what you want inside and express that on the outside, or design the outside and then fit things into it. I assume it is generally a case of compromising the two. 

Autumn Clothes: Oxfamming

Today I had the day to myself, once I had taken some photos for some freelance work I am doing.

So I went into town to buy some special sized binbags and have a mooch round. I was sort of looking for a knee length wool tweed skirt, but there were none, not even in the upstairs at M and S. All skirts are above the knee at the moment and even in expensive shops a lot of the clothes are polyester, which is not good quality to my mind.

Anyway, I pottered up to Sailors Rescue on Rosemount, a very cheap and slightly seedy charity shop with a basement glory hole. Where I found an M and S skirt in black and silver brocade, ideal for my metallics obsession. (£3.50) Similar skirt featured in the FT at the weekend. And an interesting jumper by Kin at John Lewis in mustard yellow and turquoise mottled stripes, the sort of odd thing that sometimes you can get very fond of. (£2.50)

My rule with charity shops is only to buy things that are good quality, but to get a bit experimentational in colour and design.

Morning Plants

A view of my kitchen windowsill through the blind in the morning. Also a tribute to the artist who photographs plants pressed on windows and greenhouse glass.

Peacock Butterfly

The hot summer this year seems to have been really good for butterflies. The buddleia by my front door was covered in them. And not just the tortoiseshell and red admirals and whites but my childhood favourite; the peacock butterfly. It’s amazing how butterflies have such wonderful patterns and colours.

Matisse’s Mountain Ash

An experiment! Outside my bedroom window there is a beautiful mountain ash tree. This is gouache, painted on paper and the shapes cut out. It is how my favourite artist Matisse made paintings in his later life. Including my favourite, The Snail. It is also a very soothing technique which gives a fun and retro looking result. It is important to paint the paper rather than using coloured paper so you get the texture and the interesting colours. I plan more of these.

Two Doors

I love this pair of doors on St Swithin Street, Aberdeen. One blue, one pink on a pair of c19th cottages. Another go at gouache here, trying to get the hang of it being quite opaque. You get great colours with it though.

Pitmedden House

I have been meaning to do a picture of Pitmedden House for a while. One of my friends lives in an amazing flat there. Parts of the house date from the 1600s, after which it burned down. It was then rebuilt in the C19th and then heavily altered by the National Trust in the 1950s. The back of the house looks over an amazing formal walled garden. 

This is in pen, ink and gouache to capture the interesting variety and slight decrepitude of the house.

Oxfam Shopping

Another quick Oxfam/charity shop update. Yes I use ‘Oxfam’ to describe all charity shops. I am immune to branding. 

Today I bought a great natural linen jacket, slightly safari style, ex M and S. I love linen and it is unlined with amazing french bound seams in leopard fabric. I like a slightly floppy casual jacket, no giant shoulder pads, gold buttons or rigid fabrics. I looked at some of those Chanel style ones but wasn’t sure I could carry it off. 

Also collecting scarves with metallic patterns. I now have one navy with gold spots and one fawn with copper geometric spots. I like metallic, low key glam. 

Birches in Ballater

Driving to Braemar the other day through the sun dappled birch forests of the Highlands. The birch was the first tree to appear in Scotland after the ice age. I love the black and white textured bark.

This is gouache again, trying to be a bit abstract and use limited colours. I wanted to capture the mystery and enticing quality of the woods. A tip from youtube is to block off the painting space using tape to produce a neat edge. It works well if you are doing something more abstract.

Dressing in the Heat

The insane weather lately! Heat, humidity, storms. Usually Aberdeen just goes with cold and damp all year. So what to wear.
Had to hit the Oxfam shops and the sales hard to cope with this new phenomenon. Also as I have a new job so a bit of smart casual is called for.
I’ve been wearing...
Linen is the best material for heat. It always feels cool and seems to absorb and deodorise sweat. I have a grey linen floppy skirt, a black linen dress and a new green linen shirt which have been in heavy rotation. I am bidding on another shirt on ebay.
Pastels, especially white, work in the heat. Make sure tshirts are not too flimsy so you don’t sunburn through them. I don’t usually like white but my white and blue floral dress from a charity shop in Ballater is a lifesaver.
Sandals, I got great pale pink and metallic ones in M and S. They must be insanely comfy as your feet will swell and rub. I bought some in Asda but they wouldn't stay on due to wrong straps. Cheap shoes can be a disaster.
Loose trousers, I bought a pair of baggy black crepey trousers in the sales. They are very unflattering but so practical, especially when I spent the whole day climbing spiral stairs and fighting through junk in attics at a castle in my freelance job.
What do you wear in the heat?

Balmoral Sketching

This is a rollerball pen sketch done as as I sat on a bench in the grounds of Balmoral Castle with my friend Alison L. I liked the crazy baronial architecture, all turrets. The castle was rebuilt for Queen Victoria in the c19th by local architect John Smith in the Scottish style.

I am trying to do more sketching out and about in my portable sketchbook. Moleskine make the classic ones with nice paper, traditional binding, hard covers and elastic closure.

Gordon Highlanders Museum

A brief pen sketch partly in brush pen, which gives a nice irregular effect and partly in felt pen. 

Today we popped into the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen to see a display by Aberdeen Modellers Society. The plane and tank models looked great and the club members were chatty and informative. The museum itself is excellent and also has an excellent tearoom and pretty memorial garden. 

I love the Arts and Crafts, Mackintosh style of the museum, which is a cottage converted for the successful Scottish artist Sir George Reid. Reid was a portraitist and landscape and genre painter who was well known at the time, although less so today. 

Oxfam Project Again

Another quick toodle round the charity shops on my way to the Post Office. Today I was thinking accessories. I found some great red M and S ballet flat shoes in the Oxfam, barely if ever worn and only £5. Charity shops can be a brilliant place to get shoes as people often buy them and then discover they are the wrong size, uncomfy or whatever but they are hard to return. You really can’t tell how they are when you try them on, only after you have worn them a few times.
Being red, I see these as feature shoes to add a bit of a zing to an outfit or for going out as they are fun but walkable. I think my high heels days are over.

Abergeldie Castle

Bonus post: Abergeldie Castle on the way to Braemar in gouache and watercolour. The castle was nearly washed away in recent floods as it is right by the River Dee. 

Which version do you prefer?

Going Gouache

As part of my painting project I am determined to keep trying new mediums. Media??? Following a boring attempt in watercolour body colour, I got a lovely Winsor and Newton gouache set in the Greyfriars Art Shop in Edinburgh while we were on holiday. What a wonderful old art shop, all wood panelling inside with little drawers of beautiful art materials. These paints were less than half price too! 

I have been taking lots of flower photos for painting around my area, probably annoying neighbours by leaning over walls to photo especially lovely flowers in their gardens. I am especially inspired by Georgia o’ Keefe at the moment and by the amazing weather we are enjoying which has made everything grow and grow. 

I like discovered I like gouache as it can be used like watercolour, used neat or with white. You can remove it, blend it, paint over it. Think of it as watercolour without the frustration. And the amazing vivid colours in this set brought joy to my heart. Went a bit crazy with the blue leaves but I felt it needed some zing and contrast. 

Oxfam Project

Today I was doing some work out in Braemar so popped into the excellent Clan charity shop in Ballater.
They always have great things, very cheap, plus amusing chat. Today an elderly lady was musing if it was acceptable to be nude in public if it was really hot. She seemed keen and was already wrinkled and brown like a very cheery raisin.
For me I found a green and white patterned scarf by Tigi, white cardigan from Oasis, 1950s style blue floral sundress by Simply Stock Shop and white top from Monsoon. It’s so hot I need summer clothes! The first decent summer since the 70s calls for white things, pastels, cotton, linen and loose t-shirts. I never usually buy any summer clothes as I live in Scotland. This caught me out in London where it is wonder weather and I could sit out on the balcony for dinner and pop downstairs from the flat for ice cream.
For Alistair I found a set of original lead Warhammer dwarf figures from 1986.
Total for all £20!

Outdoor Sketching

We have been on holiday to Edinburgh for a few days. I bought a classic Moleskine sketchbook in the art gallery and enjoyed outdoor sketching. I don’t usually sketch, just photo. But sketching is great As it requires more thought which is a better preparation for painting, and also productively fills boring time.

Here are some people enjoying the wonderful hot weather in Princes Street Gardens!

Flower Painting

Some experimental flower paintings I’ve been doing lately.

Top one is inks and pen with water spray

Bottom one is gouache paints with traditional dark background.

Flowers are good to experiment with because of the shapes and colours!
Which do you like?

More Portraits

A second watercolour portrait, this time of Alistair. It is more difficult doing another person. I think I captured his expression though. Again just using the three basic colours, initial drawing in 2B pencil.

Italian Food Project

Today I am cooking lamb chops in an anchovy sauce and orange polenta cake. Both from My Italian Family Cookbook by Lawrence Dallagio. I think he is a famous rugby player. The book is fairly basic  but has some nice recipes and I like the way it encourages men to cook.

Last week’s cookery book was Simply Italian Cooking at Home by the Chiappa Sisters. They are Welsh Italians and  I love their tv series but the book is a bit disappointing. I tried the gnocchi in walmut sauce recipe but it was a bit bland and claggy. There is a strong chapter on homemade pasta though.

What I look for in a cookbook are simple, tasty recipes but which are different and interesting in some way. I don’t want to spend an age on cheffy techniques, fail to find tricky ingredients or wade through chapters on low calorie eating. I like hearty, tasty food which tastes of itself, is quick and easy to make and has real, healthy ingredients.

Art Class: Cranes

I think this is the best painting I have done so far! This is from the final two sessions of my art class. It is of an interesting building site near the library in Aberdeen where huge cranes are erecting a modern building around a ruined church spire. I like the contrast of old and new and the feeling of excitement and enormity which reminds me of my wanderings in London, a city that was always being destroyed and rebuilt. 

Painting is in acrylic with an extra big one inch flat brush for doing a dynamic sky.

I tried to follow the instructions of my art teacher in deciding what the important thing to look at is and making the other features less dominant or focussed. Put touches of all the colours around the painting and look at moving the eye around the painting with different features. Use contrasting colours such as yellow on blue within a limited range. Make the brushstrokes varied and vigorous. Have dark, light and highlights and think about where the light comes from. Don’t be afraid to crop. Don’t be afraid to get more abstract as you go along just enjoying the colours and process. Think about the mood.

Oxfam Project

I admit it, I bought a lovely new tshirt today from Fatface. But I think this counts as core wardrobe as it is a dark cocoa colour so is neutral.
Second hand I got a great black tshirt, new and unworn, from Firetrap, in a heavy jersey and a crazy giant bead necklace which looks like it could be from Oliver Bonas. I find I am increasingly drawn to simple clothes and statement jewellery. I ummed and aahed over a turquoise linen jumper from Monsoon in the same shop, but it was very loose which is not flattering on me.

Useful Recipes

A busy week! But I thought I would post up a useful recipe which I make all the time, and am making today for a quick dinner before my art class.

This hummous recipe is based on the one in the excellent cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.

In a blender or a bowl with stick blender, mix tin of chickpeas, juice large lemon, clove of garlic, two teaspooons tahini. Water down to consistency. If you miss out the chickpeas this makes a tahini sauce which also makes a great dip or can go on chicken or fish.

Enjoy!

Self Portrait

A self portrait is always an interesting project. Especially if you do them every few years. It is hard not to flatter yourself. This is in conte crayon and watercolour, three colours only except for the green for the eye.  It’s all about my beady eye. 

Aberdeen Docks

A quick marker pen sketch from a sketch done at the drawing class at the docks. I like the geometric colours and patterns of the ships and their reflections.

This one cracked out after three glasses of wine and a viewing of the excellent and inspiring Waldemar J Art of the USA series.

Italian Food Library

I discovered the huge and luxurious cookery book section at the library! Joy! Aren’t libraries brilliant. But you have to be careful not to get food on them so I am mostly just reading them and writing down ideas. So far I have borrowed:

Two Kitchens: Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy

An evocatively writtten cookbook with simple, delicious recipes, mostly Sicilian. It is arranged by ingredients which is brilliant. All the aubergine recipes are together, all the tomato, all the lemon etc.

Made at Home by Giorgio Locatelli

Good for ideas but some obscure ingredients! This one is a bit more cheffy. 

Tomorrow I am doing an Italian food selection to enjoy with beer. Recipes from Polpo by Russell Norman, a Venetian cookbook.

To include: carta de musica semolina flatbreads. Tinned artichokes wrapped in speck or parma ham. Chickpea and anchovy paste on bruschetta and goat cheese, grapes, walnuts and honey also on bruschetta.

Leftover ingredients to reappear on pizza, for my lunches or in mezze later in the week.

I recommend spending a long time cooking one particular cuisine, to really get a feel for it. Year of Italian is a good choice as the food is simple, delicious and healthy.

Oxfam Clothes Project

Aha! Scored my cheapest garment yet, a lovely navy cotton sateen pencil skirt with white polka dots. One pound! From the Cancer Research shop reduced rail. I think it’s so cheap because someone cut out the care and brand labels, but I washed it and it was fine. 

This skirt will replace my very comfy but deeply unflattering grey linen gathered skirt. You know thise things you like but they look terrible on you? Especially in photos? What to do about those? This skirt and a grey waterfall cardigan I often teamed it with made me look like a bag lady. No definition anywhere on the body. And the baggy greyness, in theory chic, just made me feel dull.

Art at the Harbour

Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to get behind the fences at Aberdeen Harbour in an art workshop by Aberdeen Maritime Museum. The harbour is spectacular, full of enormous colourful vesssels, but is usually strictly out of bounds and inaccessibly ringed by busy roads and shady pubs. It was a blazing hot sunny day and we perched on stools right on the quayside. 

This is a fairly abstract ink drawing of the anazing ‘bullnose’ oil rig supply ship Sea Spider.  The ship and its companion were so futuristic, bulge fronted ships in vivid blue. It was an amazing morning! I took lots of photos and drawings so expect some more ships here soon.

Celebration Second Hand

I was feeling flush today, having just been paid for my first freelance work!

So I treated myself to a lovely Laura Ashley blue wool cashmere coat and an Anthropologie floaty patterned shirt dress. The coat is labelled size 10 but is definitely a 14 as I can fit it. Another pet peeve is why people never unpick the temporary stitching from the pockets and vents before wearing things. Don’t they want pockets?

Got both from a charity shop on Union Street, one of several I discovered with my friend Alison B. I recommend shopping with different friends, who can take you to new places and have different approaches. Alison B is all about high quality classics, especially knitwear and can home in on these the moment she enters the shop, finding some great bargains. Alison's tips: feel the garments for quality fabric and check the fabric and care labels. Check the brands and google them on your phone if necessary. Go for classic pieces in neutrals or soft colours.

No Mayo Potato Salad

I hate mayonnaise.

So I make potato salad without it. Cut up new potatoes into rustic chunks, skin on. Simmer potatoes until tender. Meanwhile put a vinaigrette dressing in a bowl, I used olive oil, red wine vinegar and dijon mustard. Mix potatoes into it. Add herbs of choice and mix again. I used parsley and dill from the storecupboard for a German flavour.
Try different mustards, vinegars, add some tapenade or sundried tomato paste. Try fresh herbs. Whatever you like. Serve warm or cool.

Snake Surprise

Yesterday we enjoyed our first trip to Hazelhead Park since we got back to Aberdeen. It was a wonderful sunny day and we had icecream and went to Pets Corner. This area has been redeveloped, so we wandered into the darkened room expecting to see the usual fish tanks and instead saw this five metre albino python. I just about shot through the roof. However, it was a truly beautiful and spectacular animal, all slumped muscle and as thick as my body. As the animals are mostly rescued pets I did wonder where this one had been lurking!

Painting is in inks painted and sponged and softened with my new water brush. I wanted to capture the vivid colours of the snake, which glowed in the darkness. No black ink was used, which makes it fresher. My art class treacher is very anti black paint and favours layering and mixing your colours instead.

Anchovy Spaghetti

Weird but good Italian recipe: Bigoli in Salsa for 2

Slowly saute an onion until it is soft and golden brown.
Mix in a tin of anchovies, including oil.
Mush together.
Add abut half a glass of white wine or white vermouth and mix.

Cook spaghetti or bucatini and stir sauce through. It will thinly coat the pasta.

Looks unpromising but very tasty!

Psychedelic Sunflower

Bonus crazy sunflower picture in dripped and wiped ink, pens, marker, inspired by my spectacular ink spillage disaster the other day. Also because messy is more fun.

London Garden

I don’t usually put my acrylic paintings on here, but I think this kind of counts as a city scene. This is Leen’s lovely garden. Bit of a cheat as when I took the photo it was raining but I think of it as sunny. 

Art Supplies

A new blog subject, I thought I might share my experiments in art materials and techniques.

One of the great nerdy pleasures of making art is the endless supply of interesting materials to experiment with. Different weights and textures of paper, boards, brushes, pens, paints, inks, pencils, the list is endless.
My latest experimental items are some pens with brush tips not pen tips. Genius! Not as messy as dip pens and making a more varied mark than felt pens. Following a spectacular broken ink bottle incident I am keen on less messy!
I bought mine at Cass Arts in London,  near the National Gallery. I got two kinds, one with black ink and three you can fill with water or your own ink mix. Link to ink ones below:

https://www.pentel.co.uk/products.asp?group=5&pid=182&type=32

Pen tip of the week: experiment with using water over your (water soluble) felt pens to produce a warercolour effect.

Kensington Townhouses

Some of the most iconic houses in London are the beautiful Regency townhouses. This pair of lovely houses are just by South Kensington tube station, as you walk up to the V&A Museum. It’s a wonderful spot in London, a pedestrian street with street cafes, and an independent bookshop. I liked the contrast of the regularity of the classical architecture and the crazy bent tree outside.