Art

Paintings | Drawings | Cross stitch | Pixel art

Paintings

San Gimignano - Smoky towers

Watercolour painting of towers on a hill, with smoke in the air, distant mountains and two small figures in the foreground

San Gimignano - Piazza del Duomo

Watercolour painting of medieval square Italian towers with two figures looking up towards birds flying into the windows

Milsom St, Bath

A first attempt at a watercolour with lines on top.

Watercolour of a grand Georgian terrace overlaid with pen and ink detail, with a dramatic cloud overhead and a seagull on top

Here's the version without the lines. Which is best?

Watercolour of a grand Georgian terrace, with a dramatic cloud overhead and a seagull on top

Iford

My first "proper" attempt at a watercolour, near Iford on the edge of Somerset.

Watercolour painting of a field surrounded by trees, with a woman and girl walking ahead along the track

Drawings

San Gimignano

A fairytale Tuscan city.

Pen and ink drawing of a medieval town on a hill with towers, framed by an olive tree and gardens

Sun 1

A stylised sun with 24 rays in the style of a lithograph, with a child's slightly smiling face

A

A letter drawn as part of the excellent Roman Bath Signwriting Workshop run by Tobias Newbigin and organised by Meticulous Ink.

A large capital letter A drawn in a classical style, with gentle curves and thin slab serifs

Homestead

This made me think about order and chaos, but which part is the order and which part is the chaos? Drawn in Lyme Regis, 2023 with Sakura Micron pens 003, 005 and 01.

A tidy conservatory with intricate floor tiles and minimal furniture, looking out onto trees, rosebushes and hints of nearby houses. There are three blackbirds just outside one window.

Lyme Regis

A composite of Lyme Regis sights. Actual arrangement may vary.

A statue of Mary Anning stands in front of buildings of different styles, the most prominent being an Art Deco theatre. Three couples, one with a small baby, walk along the beach by rocky cliffs in the background. Everything is within an arch labelled Lyme Regis in an art nouveau font.

Alice with flamingo

A copy of John Tenniel's illustration to help get a feel for the style, also because the name Alice holds special meaning right now. Pen used: Tombow Fudenosuke.

Line drawing of Alice holding a flamingo

Coverack Coves

Some salty Cornish coast. Pens used: Sakura Micron 003, 005, 01 and 02.

Barnacled rocks at the seaside

Rocky cove and play park in pen and ink

Separate but connected

Early 20th century industrial rooftops drawn in pen

The view from our bedroom window. Still feeling separated despite the wires and pipes connecting us.

Bath from frosty Englishcombe Lane

Bath drawn through a fading park fence

Another Covid picture. The bench where I drew this is on the wrong side of the park's fence. But while looking ahead, the fence started to disappear from perception.

Lockdown self-portrait

I was feeling particularly uncertain the day I started this. COVID-19 has made time, life and home feel like it is folding in on itself. Even so, the picture shows many things that give us both warmth and comfort.

Kaleidoscopic self-portrait in living room

Cambridge Place, Cambridge

Drawn in the hottest part of a heatwave. The air was stagnant but the birds and cranes carried on regardless.

Pen and ink drawing of Cambridge rooftops

St Ives

A chance to get away in difficult times and the best ever pasty on the beach with Victoria.

Pen and ink drawing of St Ives from above

Paper anniversary

A drawing to mark our first wedding anniversary. Inspired by Alphonse Mucha, from a photo by Julian Hall.

Art nouveau style drawing of Andrew and Victoria amongst shapes and flowers

Mucha Pandora

Art nouveau style black cat

Savoie

Three drawings from our recent trip to France. The main street in Thônes (with wonky scale), a dark evening train from Lyon to Annecy and some Annecy rooftops.

Line drawing of Alpine street Pen drawing of a train carriage Line drawing of rooftops in Annecy

Pandora

Our cat is a little scribble. Also known as scrap, splat, squidge, kitlet, pussface, chublet and other things. I drew these on one of her first trips outside.

Several sketches of a scribbly black cat

Roman Baths

My first drawing in the centre of Bath. A happy, busy Saturday afternoon. The baths are wrongly warped but you get the idea.

Drawing of Roman Baths and Bath Abbey

Weymouth and intermediate stations

Bath Spa, Bradford-on-Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury, Frome, Castle Cary, Yeovil Pen Mill, Maiden Newton and Dorchester West. A relaxing June train journey.

Pen drawing of nine station platforms betweek Oldfield Park and Weymouth Pen drawing of Weymouth beach

Heptonstall candle

A candle amid the roots of Heptonstall church. I was feeling a bit fragile when I drew this.

Pen drawing of Heptonstall church with roots and a candle underneath

Moorlands Park, Bath

An attempt at emulating Alfred Wainwright. But with buildings.

Pen drawing of Moorlands Park, Bath

More drawings

Drawing of Angel Square, Bury St Edmunds Cross hatched text: OH MY BABY OH MY BABY OH WHY OH MY Hart's Bakery Bristol Sprites from the Commodore 16 game Xzap by Mark Wirt Steampunk Things Welsh Welsh Dresser Study of Italian fonts using the word cameras Padova's Sant Antonio square Heptonstall Ruined Church Shieldaig 1Shieldaig 2 Viva la Reformacion Theroux The Looking Glass Leon Concert Hall

Cross stitch

Mucha window

Cross stitch of Alphonse Mucha's stained glass window in St Vitus Cathedral, Prague. I was blown away by the colours radiating from the centre and decided to plan my biggest cross stitch yet as a pandemic project. Two years and five months later (life also happened) it's finally finished.

A stitched gothic window with various Jesus-y and saintly things happening across 42 panels (there are quite a few haloes and people looking authoritative). Radiating from the centre, the colours are mainly yellow and orange, whereas the outside is more dark blue.

Here's the plan and the back of it:

Each stitch of the stained glass window represented by a colour symbol along with the threads used An arch-shaped jumble of multicoloured threads

And steps from the making of:

Part of the window on a laptop screen with the stitches starting to be written on graph paper Bottom of the plan showing the word MUCHA and the first stitches in dark blue First dark blue stitches with panel outlines, outside on a sunny day Lighter brown stitches added Light cyan stitches added Orange stitches added Yellow stitches added Complete window without the outlines

Geological map of the British Islands

My mother in law does cross-stitch and my father in law has a geological map of the country. I decided to combine the two. Made using a map from the British Geological Survey.

Cross stitched geological map of the UK

It has since been framed next to the original map:

Framed cross stitch next to original map

Golden spiral

Cross stitch version of the golden spiral.

Cross stitched golden spiral

Keepsake

I've made a small but heartfelt piece about childhood, my Nanna, class and displacement for the Keepsake exhibition starting on 14 June 2018 in Bradford.

Read more about the piece.

M C Escher's relativity in cross stitch

Escher's Relativity

My first cross-stitch, of M. C. Escher's Relativity:

M C Escher's relativity in cross stitch

Pixel art

Hexel Waterfall

Escher's waterfall in a colourised, isometric, pixellated animation. Created using Hexels.

Expand animated image

Isometric Pixel Version of Escher's Waterfall

Psychedelic Escher

A pixel rendition of M. C. Escher's Relativity.

Escher's Relativity, Pixellated

Test card

There now follows a test transmission.

Pixellated Test Card


Here is an early BBC1 test card for those not acquainted with it. (Link opens in a new window)