A word from Alice - studio stories from Alice Draws the Line
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2023 in review
A year in review. I have made this list of 23 things about 2023 that I can think of, in any old non-chronological order! Some really frivolous things and others more significant to the development of my art practice. It has been fun to do and useful at the start of 2024 to consciously think about what I want to put into this year. -
Under the oak
This Oak tree made an amazing base to sit at, lean against, and look out through the branches. I really like looking out through a canopy, and especially if there is light behind, playing on the leaves. -
Holiday cottage views
Our holiday cottage had decking in the garden with a lovely big table where you could take in the views and plenty of space for a sketchbook!This was a graphite sketch during the golden hour on one of the first evenings. -
Back to Borth beach
This extract hopefully shows some of the brush marks I was working with. The sky was amazing - blue but with streaks of white wispy clouds. Hard to achieve with watercolour without white or masking fluid, and so I added just the blue for the sky and left out spaces for the white clouds.
I was also working with a partially dry brush to try and create the white horses at the shoreline - I started to want to really play with this and develop it - but prolifically filling pages and stopping them blow away in the middle of a birthday picnic didn’t feel the right thing to do!
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A Robin for company
At the start of the year I met up with my friend Kath (The Walking Sketchbook) to sketch outdoors. We had the brilliant idea to put another date in the diary to make sure we made it a regular thing.
This week we met up again. I was lucky enough to meet Kath’s Robin - a beautiful feathered friend that regularly comes to find her when she is out locally. The Robin likes to sit near Kath when she creates and this time the Robin came to see what I was up to too!
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A rainy Vitamin Tree adventure
It was a really rainy outing this one! I met my friend Kath for a catch up and we went first to Park Wood at Hergest Croft and then back up through the gardens to the tea room. But actually, sheltered under an Oak tree it was lovely to sit with a coffee and a biscuit or two. This is my enamel bug mug design which you can find in the shop here. -
Logfire Holidays Gwenoldy
I have just had a really lovely weekend away at Logfire Holidays, Gwenoldy, near Mold in North Wales.
Back in February Nicola who owns Logfire Holidays ran a giveaway competition on her Instagram account to win a stay in their new addition - a shepherd hut... and I won! I decided to go with my cousin as it had been ages since we had enjoyed a good catch up and we had a fab time.
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Sketching outside with a HUGE piece of paper
As regular readers will know, I seem to have an interest in experimenting with working at a larger scale.
Last week I took a big piece of paper out into the parkland near the studio and sketched using one of my homemade feather quills.
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Sketching in a canoe
Last Friday it was my birthday! To celebrate we hired a canoe and went down the River Wye from Glasbury to Whitney.We took lots of snacks, and the spaniel and it was a lovely stretch of river. The wind was with us so it was very easy going. So easy that I managed to fit in two quick sketches. -
Sketch Across the World 2022 - Park Wood
This year I joined Kath (The Walking Sketchbook) for a sketch adventure in Park Wood, at Hergest Croft Gardens. It's not too far from the studio which is great.
It was lovely sat on a log drawing the bluebells with all the bright green beech leaves - and then a cuckoo called from the ridge - and continued to call as we drew and had lunch in the woods.
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Sketch Across the World 2021 - the Elan Valley part 2
For our Sketch Across the World 2021 creative adventure, we went to the Elan Valley. After sketching on the mountain road in the morning, Kath (The Walking Sketchbook) and I relocated to the river for the afternoon. -
Sketch Across the World 2021- the Elan Valley part1
I have just discovered this blog post saved, unpublished from last year's (2021) Sketch Across the World adventure with Kath - @TheWalkingSketchbook.We went to the Elan Valley for a day of sketching. First up onto the mountain road which is where these are from.
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