An Exhausting Sunday

Sergeant Stripes has had an exhausting Sunday. First, the greenhouse seemed sunny, and appropriate for sleeping, but then it was such a lovely day that the greenhouse was too hot, and sleeping had to be done in the garden. Now it is cooler, but the greenhouse is clearly not to be relied upon. Taking no chances Sarge has decided to play it safe and sleep instead in a box in my studio, where the only danger is that one may suddenly become an artist’s model. Which is exhausting. [If you are thinking this sort of post usually appears on my…

Springtime Sea Monsters!

Soon it will be spring and the water will warm up. Yes it will. And so it occurred to me that my snowflake / Swimflakes swimming hat will be right out of season. With this in mind I thought I would design a more spring-like hat. Something green, with growing things. That was the plan… but it’s funny how things come out sometimes. Somehow what the design turned into was Sea Monsters, frolicking with an overabundance of springlike joy, no doubt. I am going to get these hats printed, and, like the ‘Swimflakes’ ones (which are now sold out but…

Wendy and Ella at Coniston

My first commission of the year! This is Wendy Figures and her daughter Ella, having been swimming in Coniston. I had good photos of both their faces to work from, but the photo of them at Coniston was a very flat grey day, so I used that aspect too, and created a soft sepia background with very little colour. Often Cumbria is like that and it’s still lovely. Digital drawing.

The Big Chill Swim

10th & 11th December 2016 I shall have a stand with artwork in the marquee this year! The Big Chill Swim is Chillswim’s fantastic winter swimming gala, held at Low Wood Bay, on Windermere, Cumbria. This year I shall have a stand with artwork – prints, cards, ‘Swimflakes’ wrapping paper – and I have also designed the event image that is printed on the t-shirts and event goody bags. If you’re attending the event, I shall also have commemorative postcards, free to everyone who comes and finds me to claim them. I’ll be in the marquee. I shall also be…

Sirène: Chloe McCardel

A digital drawing I did of a lady who must be at least part-mermaid. This is a fanciful portrait of Australian long distance swimmer extraordinaire, Chloë McCardel. This week, she swam the English Channel for the 21st time, Her 20th swim broke the Australian record, and she now holds the record for the number of solo crossings in one year with 8 done in 2016! She also coached 5 successful Australian solo swimmers and three successful relay teams in 2016. One of those relay swimmers was Dory Johns, who I had the pleasure of meeting a few weeks ago, and…

Synchro Snowflakes

Welcome to this year’s edition of “Quick & Simple Christmas Product Ideas Which Actually Take At Least 10 Times Longer Than I Anticipated” I am not complaining, I am having fun, and I am also finding Adobe Illustrator indispensable for this project (and getting to grips with limited parts of it), and that makes me happy, because some weeks ago I paid for the annual licence for the whole of the Adobe creative suite, which, while it doesn’t actually require you to sign away your soul and your firstborn child baby cats, it does at least come closer to that…

The Glow Swim

Now I know, because I see the stats, that my sketchbook blog Cat-of-the-Day doesn’t get many views, and that’s a shame because this site, which gets a lot more views, has largely been about sales and exhibitions lately, and hardly any new art work… So, apologies if you are following both blogs, but I think I’m going to pop the occasional CotD sketch over here, too, so you know I do get a bit of work done, occasionally 😉 This is inspired by the unique and surreal Vobster Quay Glow Swim – 80 glowsticked heads, bobbing in a lake, everyone…

Commissioned artwork for: 100% Swimming – 24 hour swim

Here’s another swimming picture commission I finished recently… also one I enjoyed immensely so had to post this one in turn even though it’s beginning to look like I only do swimming pictures nowadays, which isn’t strictly true, it just looks that way… Paul Fowler of 100% Swimming runs a marathon event called the 24 hour swim, where brave individuals or relay teams undertake to swim one mile on the hour every hour for 24 hours. I have to say that the idea starts to seem appealing, having drawn the picture to celebrate this year’s event… though a solo swim…

The Battle of Carlingford Lough

A commission I finished a few weeks ago: Judith Campbell emerging triumphant from “The Battle of of Carlingford Lough”. This was fun to draw, quite a bit more fun than the swim looks like it was at the time, though of course I imagine it’s fun to remember it now. An 8.5k swim worthy of immortalizing in a drawing! This is a digital drawing, drawn on a tablet, like most of my swimming drawings. If you haven’t seen these before – most of them reside in my other blog, the confusingly named Cat-of-the-Day.)

‘Hidden Depths’ at the Curzon Cinema, Clevedon, July 2016

An exhibition of art inspired by The Marine Lake at Clevedon I love the Marine Lake, it’s very special, and it’s the place where I first seriously got into open water swimming. From this sprang a spontaneous series of drawings about the nature of swimming outside, and so I’m delighted to have been asked to display some of these as part of an exhibition celebrating the Marine Lake. I’ve swum there for hours in the summer, and braved its icy waters in the winter; the lake and its visitors have been an engaging year-round subject. I shall be exhibiting alongside…