MAY 2022 (1)

An email from Larry (what a trooper!) he says, "Here is the painting that I started on Monday at the group meeting. It is ‘Crazy Kate’s Cottage’ on the sea front at Clovelly in North Devon. Based mainly on a photograph that I took when we were there last week. It is a lovely village with very narrow and steep cobbled streets, no vehicles are allowed, even for the residents, who have to either carry everything up and down from the car park at the top of the hill or drag it down on wooden sledges. Quite remarkable when there is one pub, one hotel and a shop in the village.

 Also attached is a photograph of a sketch made whilst we were there. It is done in pencil and Derwent Graphitint paints which are a relatively new product that I am experimenting with. These are similar to watercolour pans but filled with ground graphite infused with watercolour. The only colours available are very muted and so ideal for landscapes."

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These are lovely Larry, thank you for sending them, you awakened a lot of memories with them. I like the way you have used the Graphitint, I have some but have never really managed them as well as you are doing. Your watercolour too is great with obviously well observed buildings, and the background fading away to give distance in the composition.

I don't think you used to come along to the Village Hall in 2014? We did a session in the July, trying to do a collage in the style of Rob Leckey who you may know? I obtained mountboard for everyone (A2) and we tried to do a collage of a scene that we liked. I tried two but one of them was of Crazy Kate's, although I didn't know then what it was called. I had visited Clovelly in 2000/2001 and taken some quick, very hit and miss photos and I used one, plus a lot of imagination, tissue paper, sand, gravel, cut outs from magazines and acrylic paint to create a terrific mess that I came across the other day, propped up in my shed and almost threw it out then and there. I have tried to photograph it to show you the result especially now it has had time to warp every which way! Definitely nothing subtle about me in those days! 

Anyway thank you for sending your super work and sending me on a journey down memory lane. 

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