Tithe Barn, Bradford on Avon

I had a birthday recently. A horrible one. I don't mean horrible nasty I hasten to add... just one of those forty-plus-not-worthy-of-a-special-number-badge ones, that make you realise you're no spring chicken anymore no matter how juvenile you act. I also had to fill an online form in that asked for my year of birth. Do you know.... it took a whole 12 seconds for the list to scroll down to get to my birth year. Honestly, I aged another year waiting for it to come in to view.

What's this got to do with art, I hear you cry?

Well, my wonderful husband bought me a complete set of new permanent coloured pencils, to celebrate my youth disappearing. There were as many in the huge box as one for every day I have been alive, it seems! As some people may know I use watercolour pencils in the main as you can get precise, applied media, with the added bonus of being to add water and squooshing it all about 'artistically'. These new pencils are permanent and hard wax based. Radically different in as much as when you make a line/mark etc.... it stays there (only turpentine will thin it out and give that painterly feel.) Where they do come into their own , is the depth of colour you can get from them. They literally shine. The wax gives a lustre the watercolours cannot match, and you can use them on wood, photographs etc which should make for some interesting experimentation soon. As it turns out the only thing that has let them down is me! Presented with every shade of vibrant beauty, what did I draw- but a mainly dark interior of monochromes!

It must be my age.....

(pictured is the interior of The Tithe Barn- roof detail)

The Three Gables....

Hot of the press and very topical at the moment, the latest offering as regards to the series of local watercolours I have been doing. This place has been the nub of many conversations over the years in town, as having prime location but no luck with planning permission etc. As with most buildings in our historic town the beauty of age and character comes at a heavy price- grade two listed being the first and foremost. That on top of being at the bottom of a valley during rainy periods and a woeful economic climate has never really let investors see past the obstacles. All has changed! New people are in and there is now a new place on the trail. I recently showed a painting of the building next to this on the blog ( The Georgian Wine Lodge) so this row in the town is certainly doing it's best to bring in tourists and locals alike. No mean feat, I say.

(To be fair, I may be very favourable to the 3 Gables as they have a new 'chef de plongeur!' we have a vested interest in..... I wonder if his new found skills translate at home?!)