Mini Lakeland views

One of the things I really like to do, if I have enough time, is to paint mini Lakeland views. Each canvas is 7cm x 7cm and is painted using a palette knife. I was kindly given a box and the compartments were just the right size to store my paintings in, so the challenge was obviously to fill the box! I have done and it's jsut a case now of identifying which views don't sell and replacing them with more popular ones. 

Generally I tend to do four at a time to try and use up the paint, but rarely do more then four as I lose focus! 

Great Gable; Jaws of Borrowdale; Bannerdale Crags; Skiddaw over the Moss and Buttermere - with a random Solway view

Ullock Pike; Carrock Fell and Bannerdale Crags. 

Ullswater from Sheffield Pike; Causey Pike; Ennerdale and Catbells. 

Crafts of the North - Keswick

The final of my two days in Keswick trying to sell paintings - I need the space at home! I really do! Anyway as I left home I heard a Lapwing - saw a Jay at the end of the road and heard Chiffchaffs and three drumming Woodpeckers as I walked down to the lake. The first Wood Anemones, some Celandines and Primroses were out too ... spring is on the way! 

Looking down Derwentwater towards Castle Crag. 

Clearing mist. 

The launches are running and gearing up for the Easter influx. 

Snake's-head fritillaries in Crow Park. 

...and some lovely hellebores - below. 

Let's hope the crowds flock in! 

Mawbray to Allonby

 Before our friends left - a quick walk on the beach and just like Buttermere yesterday it's hard to find new takes on regular walks. Today's new takes were whelk cases - large and in abundance and a couple of Little Egrets on the shore. 

Whelk egg cases. 

Big skies.

Little Egret and below. 

Almost decent reflections.

Glacial eratic.

Photo-bombing dog - adds interest to the raised beach that I was photographing - the beach is always changing. 

Plenty of freshwater run off after yesterday's rain. 

Buttermere round walk.

Compared to back home we got away lightly with just a couple of drizzle showers. As we walk round Buttermere reasonably often, I find it hard to take different photographs as the obvious views are the best, but the high lake level gave me some different takes on the normal views. 

The lone tree - well in the lake! 

Misty, moisty on the tops. 

Our friend's dog really likes water. 

Looking damp...

Herdies.

Fleetwith Pike. 

Looking down Buttermere. 

Looking towards Haystacks. 

Underwater. 

The Siddick Smew

A quick trip out to Siddick Pond, Workington, to see the female Smew that has been hanging around for a while. Numbers of this winter visitor have declined recently, so it was nice to see.  Smew usually arrive in December and depart for northern Scandinavia and Russia by mid - March. The lay their eggs high up in holes in tree trunks and ducklings leap down to the ground at just a coupe of days old to make their way to water. 

There were lots of Goldeneye, Coot, Moorhen and Greylag geese - plus a pair of Chinese geese that have been there for over a year. It was also nice to hear the first Chiffchaff of the year - spring really must be on the way! .....oh and a good view of a Reed Bunting too. 

Female Smew.

Male and female Golden-eye.

Mute Swan activity.

Chinese Geese. 

Drypoint etching

The first of this year's workshops with Cumbria Wildlife Trust - and what a pleasant day with some cracking work produced! 

We began by doing small etchings of butterflies to give everyone the chance to do a trial etching for reference, whereby they could practise using the different tools and learn how to ink up and print the plate. After that it was free choice! 

I did test two different inks - previously I have stuck to the Aqua ink, but it's a bot of a pain to clean, so I had bought some Calagio Safewash which like the Aqua is oil based, as it has to be to print onto damp paper, but it is washable. How oil based and washable combine I have no idea but it was, as it says, water proof and washable in soap and water. The Calagio, I think, gave a crisper print - but the Aqua is easier to rub into the plate and gives a more 'etching-like' effect ....swings and roundabouts comes to mind! 

The initial trial prints - well worth doing to give everyone a feel for how hard to scratch in, how to use sandpaper and how much ink to put on ..it also gave participants an idea of what size piece(s) were achievable in the given time. 

Kente Cloth

What a great day - working with all the year groups, in a local school as part of their African week. We looked at the traditional story of how a spider inspired the cloth designs; what the symbols and colours meant and how it was woven. We then, depending on the year group, tried our hands at weaving and created our own printing blocks before printing on both paper and fabric. The older class also created different patterned papers which they interwove. The nursery class listened attentively and then using premade blocks printed their own patterns on fabric. ...and it was so busy I never got a to photograph the wool weaving on a loom! 

Printing on paper ..the foam block is at the top.

Printing and oil pastel with water colour weaving.

More paper weaving and below. 

Printing on fabric - the masking tape grid was removed after it had dried. 

Nearly got the pattern! 

Printing blocks - the corks glued onto the back helped nursery to print the blocks. 

Printing on fabric....

..and paper.