The thriller Killing State, by Judith O’Reilly, cover design by myself, is available now as ebook or paperback (launch date 15th March).  Very exciting! Judith will be signing copies in Waterstones, Durham on Sunday 11th March between 11am and 1pm.

I’ve recently been making some paintings of Durham Cathedral. The first ones were not so successful but I did learn the shape of the building against the sky. So I decided to focus on that and the sky, and the rest came from there. I’m pleased with it.

I’m delighted to get a proof copy of the thriller Killing State for which I did the cover design. Really enjoyed putting it together. The book will be published as an ebook in November. Find out more on Judith’s website.

I’m on holiday with my family in Asturias, Northern Spain. It is beautiful, the weather is unpredictable and there are bears in the mountains (although we haven’t seen any yet). We are having a lazy day after a trek in the sunshine yesterday and so there is some painting time. Here are my first two attempts to capture the landscape.

I’ve had a project-in-waiting to paint Dunstanburgh Castle for some time. On a recent break in Northumberland I found some time to do a couple of sketches. My favourite, the first one, is shown. I don’t think the project is finished but I like the colours on here.

I thought I’d try something different and bought myself some oil paints: red, yellow and blue. Next I needed a project so decided to try some of the buildings around Durham. The Mugwump is my favourite shop, lots of lovely things. I used to shop there as a student too. I decided to go colourful and just see how the paint worked…

On holiday in Scotland this year I painted one small watercolour that I liked. It had the feel of the very changeable weather we had and the colours from a boat trip to watch eagles. A few weeks later I went to a felting class – something new and a lovely way to spend a morning with friends – and created a landscape in felt. I think the similarity between the two is striking, in spite of the latter being inspired by a Northumbrian wall rather than a Scottish island.

After dropping our lovely friends at the station, I came home with just the youngest son.  The sun had finally come out so I suggested we paint outside in the garden.  We enthusiastically carried out a bench for resting on and set to work.  Inspired by the beautiful sunshine, flowers, trees and blue sky, my son painted a street of houses at night.  Interesting.  I tried to be a bit more upbeat and get the feel of the light filtering into the garden and the pond.  They were painted quickly as the attention span of a six year old is not huge.  But I am pleased with the reflective quality of the first one.  And I felt I remembered how to enjoy using the paint.  More sunshine please.

It’s been a while. I’ve been busy with a part time job so painting time has been much reduced.  I still have the job but am trying to make time to paint again. Today’s painting was meant to be a quick sketch before the real thing but I kept going with it to capture the boys’ likenesses. We were waiting for a train on a trip to London.

Waiting for a tube train

Feeling glum about the general election result.  No painting this week.