Mr Elephant

This one was done about 2 years. Nowadays I do much less copying from photos, unless they are ones I've taken myself.

Tired, but happy

A twenty minute sketch of my daughter during a game of football with me and her brother on a wintry day. Had to clear the snow from the basketball court before we could kick a ball!

Saturday chat

Taken from the Arts4every1 session. I arrived late and this was a relatively quick sketch.

Tastertainment March 2013

This is an on location sketch of a performer at what I believe was the second Tastertainment session run by Arts4every1 in high Wycombe. It was very well run and the home made chicken and mushroom soup went down a treat!

Outside Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford

This sketch was done with a permanent sketching pen from a photo taken when we were on our Harry Potter trail around Oxford. I just liked the look of the lantern.

Dynamos

This was a oil sketch of a friends child playing football. I never really intended for it to achieve any level of completion but it was pleasing to the eye so I blocked in the pitch and it made it easier to see the two players in action. The green was pretty hard to achieve as I didn't want this to blend in with the great of the grass. Just about got away with it.

Derry Sounds

This is a painting based on a black and white photo taken from the childhood of Mervyn Cooke, a poet based in High Wycombe. Mervyn wrote this poem based around the photo and his childhood memories of life of a farm in Derry.

Check out his blog at :-
http://poetryinpubs.blogspot.co.uk/

The poem is as follows:-

Derry Sounds

The burn would run all night and morning
Gurgling seductively outside my bedroom window
Golden brown and bubbling over the peat-moss moors
Sounds of scratching fowls and swishing cows
Cud-chewing to the milking parlour

A sow screamed at the runt of the litter
And I with one eye opened, feel the gentle Derry air
Lift the lace curtain and blow in a ‘good morning’
With its sickly smell of sweet manure
Freshly squeezed milk from bloated udders

A clang of creamery cans
A ‘get-out-of-here’ cry to cats
That craved fresh cream
And I awake on my uncle’s farm
Oh sweet, sweet memory

Mothers Day

Hi Mum,

This one is for you - this was fro the time that you were playing with Charlotte and the strange dangly wonden flying thing. Sorry if she looks older than you! Have a great day.

Rory