Fame! Sort of.

Last year I set myself the task of making 100 urban sketches of Port Talbot, the town where I now live. You can see them in my sister blog 100 Faces of Port Talbot - the link is on the right of the page.

One of the sketches I made was of Francos restaurant and takeaway in Port Talbot. You can see the original here: -
Francos sketch 100 faces of Port Talbot
A couple of months ago the owners of Francos contacted me out of the blue to tell me how much they liked the sketch. To cut a long story short they have used this sketch on the cover and another new sketch inside their new menus. Proud? Not half! Here's the menu cover: -

One Sketch #93 Forth Bridge

More than just a symbol
of a Sisyphean task
A thing of majesty,
Might and beauty
Cantilevered arms embrace
Across the Firth
And people move
Across the face of the waters.

You may recall earlier this year that I said that I have a thing about bridges. Well, this is one of the greatest - not just in Britain, but of the whole world. Having said that, it is a thing of Scotland - and being of Scottish ancestry myself I have to admit a certain swell of pride every time I look at it.

One Sketch #92) Flamencole! #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Passions whirl like satin
to the staccato heartbeat of Spain.

I love Spain - in fact I'm going there during August, starting off in Madrid before making my way to the in laws in Alicante. I like flamenco as well, and today, having completed the 30x30 challenge I just really fancied letting it all go and painting a real 'explosion in my paintbox' picture. And you know what - I rather like it!

One Sketch #91) Ice Cream Van

He's obviously very blessed
Our local ice cream man
A modern day pied piper
In a psychedelic van

Yes, it's been a scorchingly hot weekend here in sunny South Wales, so what would be more appropriate to sketch than an ice cream van - although in a slightly perverse mood I've sketched the customers wearing rather more usual apparel for the British summertime.

I've just noticed. When I've made tomorrow's sketch I will be just fractionally into the second quarter of my one sketch a day challenge. Yay!

#DirectWatercolor2018 - paintings 27-29

27 - Walking on the Moon

28 - main entrance of Swansea Waterfront museum

29 - Swansea Marina Pump House Restaurant

One Sketch #90 #30x30DirectWatercolour2018 Swansea Marina

I'm blue,
Dabadee dabadoo
So are you, you and you
(in this sketch anyway)

This is a momentous picture - not so much because of any inherent quality, but because it is the 30th direct watercolour I've made in June, which means I passed the 30x30 challenge! Yeah! I had about 20 minutes of the South Wales Urban Sketchers Group sketchcrawl in Swansea Marina today, and just suddenly hit upon the idea of making this sketch of the tug Canning and surroundings in shades of blue. I think it was a serendipidous choice - I rather like this.

One Sketch #89) Manchester Town Hall #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Built on the produce
Of Cottonopolis.
Buttery stones stand out
In this red brick city
A civic castle
And a symbol of pride.

I've always liked this particular kind of Victorian, overblown neo-Gothic architecture. St. Pancras Station (alright, the Midland Hotel) and London's Natural History Museum are two of my favourite examples, and this, Manchester Town Hall, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.  This is actually number 26 of my 30 direct watercolours in the month of June, and I think the practice is starting to pay dividends. This is far more ethereal, far looser than I was painting at the start of the challenge, and far closer to what I was actually trying to achieve in this picture.