KITE FESTIVAL CORRALEJO SAND DUNES

Known as the Windy Island, what better place to stage a Kite Festival than our very own sand dunes at Corralejo?

Today we walked along the  Dunes (and its a fairly long walk) to see some of the wonderful kites on this, the second day of the four day festival.   Its the 27th Annual Festival and attracts flyers from all over the world.

Here's David doing his Lawrence of Arabia thing .....

Should have hopped on a camel ... would have been quicker

Today was 'free fly' day and tomorrow is a bigger event when professionals with stunt kites show their skills.  Sunday is family day when over 150 kites are handed out to kids to have a go while running around trying to catch sweets dropped from the air by little parachuting teddy bears ... bless    Followed by a Firework display in the evening as the Spaniards do like a noisy finale to most events!

These are some of the fabulous kites on display whilst we were there but others were coming and going all the time:  Lovely blue skies this morning although its clouded over this afternoon - not bad for November eh?

NOT SUCH A BRIGHT IDEA

Why did I decide to work on a pastel portrait (a black labrador at that) on the day before we leave for a trip?   

The weather is appalling here - torrential rain which at times has thrashed down like hailstones and so very cold .... Its very difficult working on black fur in artificial light so I've given up but of course I now need to have a big clean up (me and the working area)!      

I do tend to get sidetracked and wander round opening cupboards, making coffee etc and just generally leaving a trail of pasteldust behind.    A friend is staying at the house whilst we are away so I need to make sure its all clean and tidy.

At least I've made a decent start on it.   The dog portrait is to be a Christmas Gift so doesn't have to be posted till early December.    I seem to be stockpiling them at the moment.   She's a very shiny black dog and I've been using lots of blues, mauves and reds to lift the colour a bit - using black pastel alone would simply look very flat and dull.    The photo is the best I can get at the moment

NOVEMBER ALREADY?

Don't the months/years just rush by when you get older?    Less than 8 weeks to the Big C ... bah humbug.

OK, well I finished the cp drawing and must admit I'm pleased she escaped the bin as I've grown to quite like her now

Now I've posted this I can see some areas I still need to tweak but I've packed the Coloured Pencils away for now in readiness for starting the pastel commission which I've outlined this afternoon.   Its a black dog so I didn't actually make a start on it as I lost the light ... I do have daylight bulb lamps but still prefer to work in good natural light when dealing with black fur.

Tomorrow is our Grand-daughter's 'family birthday tea'.  She's a Halloween baby (4 years old yesterday) so had a playschool party on Friday, a 'soft-play' party for friends today and tomorrow is the family day so she's going to be quite partied-out by the end of the weekend!  I probably won't get any artwork done tomorrow.

Yesterday was the warmest Halloween Day on record in the UK apparently, and it was mild enough to sit outside at our friend's house in short sleeves!        Here's a few photos I 'filched' from her Facebook page

Our hostess, Di, taking a 'Selfie' in front of the mirror.   She isn't normally green, by the way!

Well, we were warned!!!

This was Alan, enjoying a pint and a ciggie in the garden

Love these 'filmy' door hangings/screens .... very creepy, don't you think?

and a coven of witches - note David's pink hair LOL

Happy Halloween

Just a quickie as we're off to a friend's house tonight for a Halloween Get-together with the 'old crowd' close to where I used to live. Amazing we all met through our horses when we stabled them at the same livery yard(s) ... all those apres horse-riding sessions with hot coffee laced with 'something to keep the cold out'  LOL.    Must be 20+ years since we first met ... something like that anyway. 

I used a recipe posted by  Jo on her Blog recently for a shallot and mixed cheese Halloween Spider ... mine doesn't look quite as good as hers, but it tastes good and its a bit of fun   

You can't really tell from this photo but its 10" long and approx 6" wide (minus the legs) and supposed to feed 12 ... its quite a hefty beastie and has feta, goats cheese and cheese spread coated with poppy seeds (as I couldn't find black sesame seeds)

A little more progress on the cp drawing.   I'm gradually getting to grips with the braids and I'm kind of toying with the name 'Pretty in Pink' to steer away from anything that might be viewed as politically incorrect in these stupid times.

 Can't spend too much time on her as I've now got the ref. photos for the next Christmas commission and I'll make a start on that over the weekend.

Happy Halloween everyone ... thankfully we live off the beaten track so never got bothered with Trick or Treaters 



 

POTAHOLICS AND PORTRAITS

Tonight we drove into Canterbury to attend 'an audience with Henry Sandon' who is a self-confessed Potaholic.       Fans of The Antiques Roadshow (as we are) will be familiar with Henry's bubbly personality and squeaky giggle when he gets excited ... and that's quite frequently.    At 86 years young, Henry kept us all entertained with a potted (excuse the pun) history of his life and achievements from his childhood days with a father who trained dogs to act in silent movies to his career as an archaeologist and his long history with Antiques Roadshow as an expert on pottery and porcelain, in particular, Royal Worcester.   An absolute joy to listen to him

I took a couple of photos in the Grounds of Canterbury Cathedral and the nearby Theatre - it all looks so beautiful lit up in the evening

This is just outside the Theatre building and I should have posed David in front to give an idea of the scale - it is pretty large

Anyway ... some more good news (blowing my own trumpet again I fear) ... my Tamil Nadu man picture which sold at last week's exhibition, actually clocked up the most votes from the exhibition visitors.   I received a 'monetary award' for winning the public vote  yeayyy!  

Actually I'm more than chuffed to learn that the 4 works I submitted all got lots of votes and came in at 1st, 6th, 8th and 10th so I think Canterbury is a good place to exhibit my style of portraiture in the future.    There were 141 pictures hung altogether

and another update on the latest cp picture.    I put in a base colour for the hair but decided to work more on the skintones this morning - will come back to those fiddly braids at the weekend.   I think its kind of pulling together again but I do still have mixed feelings about it.   I've reached the stage where I've put in too many hours to abandon it now so ..... tomorrow is another day etc etc

I'm hoping to put in my first appearance at one of the regular Monday evening meetings of the Canterbury Society of Arts on Monday.    There will be a presentation re. Giclee printing which I'm interested to learn more about and an intriguing second half session where members are invited to take along a painting/drawing for discussion about choosing a suitable title

I'm quite tempted to take this picture along as I'd hate to be politically incorrect by naming it Black Beauty or similar .... and 'the hair-braider's daughter' sounds like the first lime of a limerick ...

any ideas for titles in the meantime please?

FIRST COLD OF THE WINTER .... YUK

I have a horrible cold which is making me feel a bit yukky so really I shouldn't draw when feeling under the weather as I know from experience I'm liable to do silly things ... today was no exception.

I decided to use some Zest It solvent to speed up the darkening process on her skin .... went straight in without testing and ended up with a 'flat' dark brown/black cheek (left side as we look at her).   Ordinarily I'd have thrown it in the bin at that stage and started again as I wasn't too far advanced.  But I'm out of Pastelmat paper and awaiting a delivery which probably won't arrive till the weekend so I decided to let the solvent dry and try to rescue the picture - I've managed to get some lighter layers on top.

Jury's out at the moment ... the girl is very dark/black skinned so this is actually pretty true to life, but I'd got to like the lighter more subtle shading I'd been working on even if the skintones weren't true. 

I took this photo tonight and the light is poor but I'll do some more work on her on Thursday before deciding if it stays or goes   LOL

and a few birdie pictures ... as I mentioned, I took rather a lot of photos at Rotterdam Zoo and here are some of the feathered subjects

Some very brightly coloured specimens to brighten up a gloomy October day

and who can resist these little chaps

 

 

Not all are zoo exhibits ... we encountered quite a lot of gatecrashers too:

Mandarin ducks just don't look real do they?   Well, the males at least - the females are quite drab.   Perhaps this should be the next coloured pencil challenge ... it would certainly use up some of the brighter colours in my collection that don't often get used.


 

 

Thats it for now ... off to nurse my cold.   Lots of comfort food called for methinks  :-)