Some new sketchbooks...

I have had the 'flu bug for the last couple of weeks.  I had the influenza shot earlier in the winter, so luckily I escaped the worst of it.  Even so it was no fun, with high temperatures and accompanying shivers and sweats.

I have started doing a few things now though, including a little shopping....

 

I found some lovely leather bound 10 inch by 7.5 inch sketchbooks on sale in a bookshop, and I bought six of them for myself.  It may sound greedy, but it is surprising how quickly you can fill a sketchbook when travelling or making thumbnail sketches when working on a compositional problem.  Hopefully these will keep me going for a year or two, they are good quality paper and they will take watercolour as well as pencils, pastels and crayons.  they are quite tactile too, with their leather covers, it is a pleasure to hold and carry them around.  I have already created a fronticepiece doodle in the first book, noting when and where I purchased them.  This helps me date the sketches in the books, as I rarely date the sketches themselves, but I date each book as I start using them, so I have a ball-park date on most sketches within the sketchbooks. 

These are a nice large but convenient size for travelling, and I'm looking forward to my first trip of the year.  It may be our trip to Girona in Spain in March, but I hope to get away here in Ireland earlier, aside from a scheduled trip to the cottage in Sligo.. 

A New Year.

It is a new year, and it seems to be promising to be a good one.  This evening I was treated to a wonderful sunset on my way home, and as the adage goes, red sky at night- shepherds delight; giving a promise of a fine day tomorrow.  Spring is on it's way, and the evenings are starting to show the signs of the lengthening days.  I look forward to the first flowers of spring, and the start of the trout fishing in 8 weeks time...

Since my last post I have been busy socialising over the Christmas period, and for the last few days catching up on a few jobs.  Business as usual, and hopefully a profitable year to come.  My first job next week is to tidy my studio, it became quite disorganised over the Christmas season,  mainly due to paintings being lifted out of racks and stacked here and there for viewing.  I need to safely stack them all back in the racks again to give me room in the studio for painting.  I will have to ensure they are safe from splashing paint before I can start work.  I hope to get some work done before the fishing starts, I'll feel less guilty slipping off to the river that way.