What a Finale!

My last postcard has arrived safely and how appropriate that it is from Katherine Tyrrell, who brought us all together through Sketchercise.

Do click on the image and you will see I've posted a large version so everyone can enjoy Katherine's beautiful fine penwork and her skilled approach to overlaying different layers of coloured pencil to achieve wonderfully natural colours.

This is certainly more painting than postcard - 16.5 x 24 cms on Arches HP.  It's a drawing of the new Chinese Pagoda in London's Victoria Park.  Such beautiful reflections in the West Lake which Katherine says is not yet full again following the major desilt operation. 

Thank you so much, Katherine.  This one is now in search of a suitable frame.

Willow reflections

Katherine's card popped up at Coin Perdu in the New Year, but it was actually done still in the old year. Maybe reflecting on the old year, while sketching the reflections of the willow...?

..the willows..
done in colored pencil and pen on Arches HP paper, 19x28.5cm

Between the full sketch and the crop below, one can get a great feeling of the marks Katherine makes with her pencils and pen. a lot of cross hatching, some erasing for the higlights, some darker pressure here and a soft touch there... I especially love the darkness of the reflections breaking up into softer tones and hues and more highlights and finally disappear into the lefthand corner, adding such lovely diagonal movement. I feel as if I'm slowly passing in a canoe, dragging my hand through the ripples and reflections.

...the willows(detail)...

Katherine chose to compliment the Loire here in my world with her sketch of the willows at the basin of the Regent's canal there in her world...very appropriate and very special! Thank you for a lovely card Katherine!

Growth and Transcience in Nature

A truly stunning card from Albrecht. I would be delighted to receive just one of Albrecht's pencil sketches but now I have two and both are equally beautiful! On the front is coloured pencil drawing with the words 'Growth and transcience in nature. On the way to Holy Mountain (Heiligenberg)'.

On the back, another very delicate sketch from Heidelberg. I'm at a loss to describe how lovely this card is but I think you'll agree it speaks for itself! Thank you so much Albrecht!

Night Sketcher

Coloured pencil on black paper - Vivien Blackburn

14.5 x 19.5 cms

I really can't call this beautiful nocturne from Vivien a postcard.  It's a painting and it absolutely delights me.  It has some of the magic of Van Gogh but is distinctly and beautifully Vivien Blackburn.  

I'm off to buy a frame!

Pagoda in Katharine's local park

I have not even looked for Katherine’s signature on her postcard. The beautiful drawing of a park in her neighborhood with a pagoda could only have been drawn by her. It is her unique artistc style.

I used a magnifying glass to see what Katherine has used first. The red felt pen. Right? The red lines give the drawing a warm expression as in the postcards that we all cherish.

Even the colors of the stamps are matching those in her drawing!

Thank you Katherine so much for the beautiful card.

Stunning Autumn Glory at Sheffield Park

This card needs no words.  Enjoy!   I certainly am.  It's genuinely tremendous!!

Thank you so much Katherine.  I have been studying it carefully working out the technique.  The delicate interlace of pen and coloured pencil works brilliantly.

Lucky me!

If you'd like to know more about the wonders of Sheffield Park see Katherine's recent posts on her sketchbook blog:

• Autumn Colour at Sheffield Park
• An Indian Summer (and ice lakes) at Sheffield Park

The coast near Porthgwarra

The sea at Porthgwarra, Cornwall
(mixed media)
Vivien Blackburn

Walks for sketching sometimes have to take second place to other commitments - particularly when a family member has been in hospital as has happened to Vivien recently.

This then is another of Vivien's experiments of sketching from her memories of a scene from a walk in Cornwall along the coast near Porthgwarra.

I thought I'd misread the spelling to start with - but checked it - and it's definitely Porthgwarra.  I wasn't sure where this was despite Vivien's description - so took a look at the map

Location of Porthgwarra Cove (see arrow)

It's where the arrow is on the map (click and open in a new tab to see a bigger image).  That's west of Porthcurno and south of Lands End.  The reason I was confused is that I'd forgotten that Lands End is not the most southerly point of the UK - it's the most westerly point - and is just off the north west corner of this map.

This is how the Sennen Cove website describes Porthgwarrow - and it's definitely a good place for a walk!

A superb, secluded Cornish Cove just under 3 miles southeast of Lands End. Porthgwarra is steeped in history and tradition - one time a busy fishing cove , now just one boat regularly works crab pots from here.
The cliff path leads away west towards Lands End (roughly 1.5 hours walk) , and east towards Porthcurno (45 minutes) - both very scenic and dramatic routes !

Vivien says she was trying to catch the movement and varying depths of the water - with the rocks half seen underwater.  She assures me that the sea around this part of Cornwall really is the colour she's painted it! :)

What I like about it is that look of translucency of the water - I'm more familiar with the water off the west coast of Scotland and it very much reminds me of seas I've seen there.  It's also got that sense of the swirling movement of the water in a cove which is so difficult to catch.

I'm told the art media used for the postcard included gouache, coloured pencils, tippex and a secret ingredient.  My lips are sealed!

Great Dixter, Sussex

I don't think my words, or my scanner, can do justice to this magnificent card from Katherine. It's a symphony of colour. Katherine has a unique way of blending and layering her colour pencils so that all the colours are visible and appear to radiate off the paper. The reds in the shadow areas have an incredible effect on the greens and how she has managed to capture that soft, warm, hazy sunlight, I will never know!

Thank you Katherine, for this beautiful card!

Kew Gardens

This exquisite colored pencil and sepia ink painting is from Katherine Tyrrell .  She said this is a sketch of one of her favorite views in Kew Gardens.  It’s the east/west axis from the Palm House looking toward the Chinese Pagoda.  The Pagoda in reality is a deep crimson but Katherine said it always looks blue when viewed from a distance.

It was such a treat to come home from my vacation/working week away to find this wonderful piece of art just sitting there waiting for me.  I can’t even put into words the beauty of each colored pencil stroke combined with another color to magically make shape and depth and glowing contrast.

A Beach in London!

You wouldn't think that Katherine had been going through a torrid time in London, looking at this tranquil scene in her local park. She transformed the drained lake into an 'urban beach' scene in her distinctive cross-hatching with coloured pencils style - so beautiful to see in the original. I love the clean, elegant composition and the lovely cool colours - gives me a feeling of a real haven of peace in spite of what had been going on very closeby.
And don't the British just do the most beautiful stamps!?

A walk in Provence

Last year a friend and I drove 3000 miles across France. Amid all the wonderful scenery one abiding memory is the bright, light greens of the vines. I don't know what I'd expected, but certainly not lines of almost lime green traversing the hillsides and valleys.

Katherine has captured perfectly that amazing colour and also the atmosphere of heat and sunshine using coloured pencils in, what I'd describe as,  a  very painterly way. This is a perfect reminder of my travels. Thankyou Katherine.

Detail showing lovely purple shadows and different greens.

This was the view Katherine saw frequently as she returned home from walks through the surrounding countryside when, with 3 other artists, she spent several weeks in Provence this summer.

This wonderful time has been recorded in the Blog Four Go Painting In Provence.

Memories of Winter

What can i say, this is such a beautiful card, it doesn't need words!

Vivien's use of mixed media is always so inspiring!  She tells me, this was started back in the winter as a demo for one of the classes she tutors. The first frostings of snow, done in oil with a palette knife on brown card. She then finished it off a couple of weeks ago on a scorching hot day "a nice antidote to cool me down" as she put it.

 All the veil of colour on top of the white is coloured pencil.  It's really lovely. No other medium lets you produce such delicate interweaving.  I am definitely inspired to pick up my pencils again.  I had no real idea one could get such effect over oil paint.

Thank you Vivien, it's such a wonderful mix of composition and colour.  I think it will look rather good framed and on my wall!

Private View of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, by Katherine Tyrrell

Kathine Tyrrell often reviews major exhibitions in the UK on her highly-ranked art blog Making a Mark, and she sometimes does amazing sketches of the other folks invited to the private viewings and previews.  Although she sketched this nicely nuanced vignette early in May she had it propped up near her computer and “forgot to post it on time because it had become part of (her) office!”  I’m absolutely thrilled that when she finally got it mailed, it arrived in Victoria in just a few days, and now it’s part of MY office!  

Katherine has written many wonderfully helpful posts about sketching on Travels with a Sketchbook and Making a Mark (one of my favourites is 10 tips for how to sketch people) – but to actually sketch so beautifully and with such apparent ease takes hundreds of hours of practice, upon which I’ve barely started… so you can see why I’m so very pleased to have received this 'original’ from Katherine herself.

The Horizan at Cape Cornwall and the Brisons

Vivian’s postcard arrived at just the right time to brighten an exceptionally hectic day.  I felt calmed and loved all at the same time.  Isn’t it special? 




Sunset Across the Bay
Vivian Blackburn           Leicester England



Of course it’s much better in person, holding it in my hands and looking very closely to every colored pencil line that combine to make the most wonderful colors of this remarkable sun set.  Vivian said that she sent me a sketch of the sunset across the bay.  On the horizon are Cape Cornwall and the Brisons.  She said that the weather coming across the Atlantic means that the clouds form over the land making gorgeous shapes.

They are gorgeous aren't they? 

A postcard from London - the meeting place

The Mall Galleries, London, Katherine Tyrrell, coloured pencil

I've been lucky enough to scan through Katherine's sketchbooks on many occasions when we've met up - but never owned any of her work  - until now :>)

This gorgeous large card was waiting for me when I got back from Cornwall.   It's of the entrance to the Mall Galleries, huge trees along the pavement, luminous spring leaves with a wonderful subtle dappled light filtering through and making the grey pavements alive with colour.

It's where we often meet up on the rare occasions when I manage to get down to London so a familiar and very apt subject.

I love the attitude of the man in the centre of the group of   :>).

The warm colour of the poster is just perfect as a small accent amongst all that spring green.

The bulk, weight and age of that front tree is well done.

Altogether - I'm delighted!   I'm building such a lovely collection from you all :>)

Thank you everyone

Small Road to Coin Perdu

18.5cm x 17.5cm Gouache, Pen, Pencil

Every small road leads to big discoveries - Ronelle van Wyk

For my postcard, Ronelle has painted the little road that leads to her mountain home in Correze, France.

In her note on the back of the card Ronelle said:

I've always believed that tiny roads also lead to big surprises. This was how we found Coin Perdu, a secret little jewel at the end of a small road. The hills are very green with stunning spots of white and yellow and orange wildflowers everywhere. The cattle are back in the fields, keeping their young ones close by, the lambs doing their usual mischief, the birds and the bees are busy, busy, busy ... the deer jumping from field to field ... all in all, nature is exploding with life and optimism.

She went on to say, she hopes to explore more of these quiet, small roads this summer and discover with her brush and paint the surprises that await at their ends.

Ronelle is always full of wonderful surprises, some of them not so small. In the huge envelope with the postcard were other delightful gifts and the pen and gouache sketch on the front of the envelope must have surprised and delighted French and Italian postal workers as they passed it along to me.

Thank you Ronelle. I'm looking forward to exploring other small roads with you in Provence this June.

Trees by the Tate - Greetings from London

During the lunch break I heard a rattling at letter box and I was delighted to find this beautiful postcard from London inside. Katherine Tyrrell had taken the time and effort to sketch some trees at the famous Tate Gallery, London and had posted them to me.

The drawing is in coloured liner pen and coloured pencils I think, on a buff white strong card in a slightly panoramic view (1:2). I like the way how people are arranged in different scale from foreground to the background and it is nice to follow them through the picture. To me it seems like a film still and immediately I began to wonder what the story could be about.

Thank you very much Katherine for this unique piece of mail art.

An expensive painting, February postcard from Katherine

Look what I got in the mail – a beautiful coloured pencil version of Pierre Bonnard’s Terrasse à Vernon by Katherine Tyrrell. She says it auctioned at Christies for a mere sum of 6.4mGBP (sorry I don’t have a pound symbol on my Australian keyboard!)

The colours in this postcard are amazing and so vibrant and a real treat on a very dark and grey autumn Sydney day (yes, we do have days like that – occasionally!)

Thank you Katherine!

[NOTE:  You can read more about why/how this postcard was created in "After Bonnard" on Katherine's blog]

Introducing Vivien Blackburn

sunset, Penwith, oil in sketchbook

I'm really looking forward to this postcard exchange with such a great group. Thank you for the invitation :>)

About me: I can't remember a time when I didn't draw - one of my earliest memories is, aged one, posting drawings (scribbles) to my father when he was in Gibraltar, looking for accomodation so that my mother and I could go out to join him.

In my youth I lived in some beautiful places including Cornwall, Malta and on the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland, so, though it may have scrambled my education a little, it almost certainly led to an early feeling for light and landscape.

I went to art college on leaving school, completed my Foundation Year, didn't continue on to the Diploma years - did a few different things - art was on a back burner - then married, had 2 daughters and didn't go back until they were at senior school. I then did my BA in Fine Art as a mature student. It's never too late :>)

This is some of my sketching, the first few are all Cornwall

Sam, evening, silver sea, watercolour/mixed media in sketchbook

Moorland Farm, Penwith, watercolour/mixed media in sketchbook

Lanyons Quoit, charcoal, in sketchbook

Someone commented earlier on about the clean neatness of Albrecht's sketchbook - mine are, I'm afraid, messy ones! I work in all sorts of media - oils, watercolours, lots of mixed media, charcoal, pastel, pencil, acrylic ..... etc etc etc- so loose oils may follow a detailed close up study of something in pencil in my books, followed by watercolour, mixed media, charcoal ,ink - anything goes.

Wild Day, Sennen Cove, oil


Approaching Rain, Mawgan Porth, charcoal and coloured pencil, in sketchbook

Charlestown, Cornwall, watercolour/mixed media, in sketchbook

I particularly like to paint or draw water - the Cornish coast has to be top of the list but canals, streams, rivers tool

Wild Day, Sennen Cove, pencil, in sketchbook analysing the movement of the waves

The Old Packhorse Bridge (very old), Aylestone Meadows, charcoal, in sketchbook

Frog Island, Leicester, in large A3 landscape sketchbook

I don't often do industrial landscapes. This is part of a series of sketches of local waterways that I intend to revisit.

Cardoon seedheads, in sketchbook, pencil

And .... sometimes it's nice to change scale and observe something closely. I found the spiky dry scales vs the fluffy insides of these cardoons fascinating to draw.

I unfortunately have arthritis and asthma. so my walking distance is limited but it is essential to keep moving so sketchercise is great as it will encourage me out walking, sketching and sharing the results :>)

I like to work plein air soaking up the atmosphere, feeling the wind. smelling the vegetation, getting the mood of the day and seeing the colours as the light changes - it is so much better than a photograph, fixing all this in my visual memory, the feelings, smells and memories come back when I look through old sketch books.

Well - my first postcard went out at the end of January so hopefully it's winging its way to Martin. And I'm really looking forward to the first one dropping through my door :>) and following the progress through the months.

Introducing Felicity Grace

I'm delighted to be a part of the postcard project and I'm hoping it will be the incentive I need to make sketching a routine when I'm out walking. I love to walk and I'm very lucky to have lots of beautiful scenery here in Geneva. I've been living here, with my husband and two teenage sons, since 2006 and before that we were living in Kuwait. After five years of living in a country where everyone drives and walking is seen as a little odd, more than anything else, I missed just being able to go out of my front door and walk!

I've been drawing since I was a child and considered myself an artist for as long as I can remember. It wasn't encouraged though, so I'm self taught. I used to draw detailed pencil portraits and sketch very occassionally until 2005 when I discovered an online group of artists and set up a blog. I was living in Kuwait at the time, and active in a very creative quilt group. Quilting brought out a love of colour I'd forgotten I had, and my confidence really grew once I started sketching. Having a blog to update and taking photos around Kuwait really opened my eyes in a new way to the inspiration all around me and I stopped drawing from photos and magazines and started recording my own life. I set up another blog, Sketches by Fiz, just for my drawings. In 2008 I started using colour pencils for portraits such as this one, of my brother

Last year I began using watercolours, and I'm very much a novice, but I've found them perfect for representing leaves and flowers. One of my first memories is of a lupin and it's leaves and I remember how perfectly designed it was and how beautifully the colours faded into one another. So I feel I have come full circle, trying to do justice to the little marvels of nature I collect on my walks. These leaves were collected in my garden

I'm sure my postcards will be mostly things I've collected, but being a part of this exchange with such an inspiring and supportive group of artists, I feel sure it will help me grow and push me even further in my own artistic journey!