Boxing day walk

I love a walk on Boxing day, after stuffing ourselves on Christmas day it's great to burn off all that excess food and wine! Boxing day this year in the Lakes was a beautiful day the sun was shining and there was barely any breeze, which made it glorious walking weather. Christmas cake was in the sandwich box and a flask of tea what could be a better way of spending Boxing day. We ticked off two more Wainwrights Great Bourne and Starling Dodd in Ennerdale, these are not well known fells but what fantastic views of all the ones we know, Calbells, Helvellyn and over to Gable.

Red, red robin comes.........

I can't resist taking photo's of Robin's they really are little posers, I caught this little chap at Grasmere our Lakeland Robin's are not camera shy, sometimes I feel you could hand feed them. With a week to go to Christmas it's been very busy with the gallery, Xmas card workshops and preparing for the festive time which I love, mince pies haven't been made yet,and I still have some pressie's to buy and wrap!

Winter wonderland

Fresh snow and calm lakes make the perfect winter picture, I'm thinking of having a go at this lovely view of Grasmere, I drove to Grasmere from Keswick we had no snow but Grasmere had this lovely sprinkling, where shall I go I thought, and as always I'm drawn( excuse the pun!) to some of my favourite views, I often paint the view down the Lake looking at Helm Crag but today this is what caught my eye, the bench that I usually sit on was snow covered, so I did a quick standing up sketch, always having pens and pencil to easy reach makes a difference in these conditions. A hot chocolate warm up ended the perfect afternoon

A Classic

I love painting Striding Edge it really is a true classic with lots of excitement and drama especially in the winter, it's in Lot's of ways helped me succeed in the world of art, one of the first exhibitions I entered was British painters at Ilkley where I was voted one of the top artists and an actor off Cor nation street bought my Striding Edge ( Alf Roberts the shop keeper) this gave me such a buzz and greater confidence to approach galleries. Now in December this year I have my first demonstration and article in 'Leisure Painter' and I was asked to paint my old favourite Striding Edge. If this cold front keeps up , I'll be taking just the sketch book, watercolours tend to freeze on the paper! back up Helvellyn to see a classic Lakeland vista.