Just a couple of quick gouache sketches that were inspired by a weather-filled walk on Hathersage Moor this winter. The wind was wild, moving the swirly-whirly clouds along so quickly and allowing the sun to peek out and do its reflection-y thing again here and there, it was wonderful. I didn’t get rained on either, which was a bonus.
November was perfectly November-ish today (“No sun – no moon! No morn – no noon”, etc. – Thomas Hood). Wonderful greys and yellows and hazy outlines though.
These three new original A6 paintings inspired by November Skies are now listed in my Folksy shop
Yesterday I had lightly pencilled in a trip to the seaside to have an ice-cream with Sal off of littleblackheart. I dithered and dithered for several hours right up until the point where if I had set off right then, it would have been time to leave again by the time I got there. I’m so annoyed with myself. I am hopeful that she will let me reschedule our seaside friend-date for a future time when I intend to be 100% more brave.
Instead I went to the nearest thing we have to the sea, a reservoir: Ladybower. First I went for a hike up the hill to look at the view. It was stunning and peaceful for about 3-4 minutes until a bunch of other people arrived and decided to sit right next to me. It was the best spot for miles around, clearly. Look at all those lovely tors.
A couple of dodgy sketches bagged, I headed back down the hill for what I thought would be another 2 hour walk, but I took and accidental shortcut which only took 30 minutes. Oops. I did spot some heather in bloom, a couple of baby grouse and a bunny though, so all’s well that ends well?
I finished the afternoon by having a nice sit down by the water and imagining that it was Cleethorpes and that I had an ice cream and a friend.
