First Snow of Winter

Just five days after the official meteorological start to Winter. We awoke this morning with a bit of a shiver and were greeted with the first snow of the winter, this was the scene at 7.30am along our street. The tartist and I were at work for 8.00 to do the breakfast shift  after which we got our heads together to finalise our plans for the new Artcafé menu, the winter theme was helped considerably by the view from table 6 of a snowy churchyard. For my part I've been flirting with the idea of some sort of drawing or painting-a-day for year type project for 2013. Now this been nagging away for some time at the back of my mind and is a scary thought but tantalising at the same time. Painting a day type blogs and projects are nothing new and there are ever so many across the virtual world including some extremely good ones like this one by American artist Duane Keiser I discovered the other day. If I choose to do it I have to be sure it's going to bring something to my work and not just massage my ego, well, I've still a couple of weeks to make up my mind and then work out what form it might take... watch this chilly space, as they say.

Almost Mid-Winter on the Island

 'Strood Channel' ~ Pastel on Paper

Having just returned from a bracing walk along the Coast Road and with the feeling beginning to return to my fingertips I thought I'd put pen to paper again (or curser to pixel) on what has become a somewhat sporadic blog. The days are almost at their shortest now and although unlike yesterday the temparature has not been minus, the easterly wind coming up the river Blackwater had an eyewatering bite to it. By 4pm it was almost dark, but minutes earlier the setting sun had peeked through the cloud over Tollesbury and set the sky alight for a few fleeting minutes. With the light fading as I turned into the High Street I saw a cloud of Starlings doing that spectacular swirling around they like to do before going off to roost. The Brent Geese are well and truly encamped around the saltmarshes now and I'm pleased to say we can hear their familiar honking sounds down on the Strood from our bedroom at night. And so it's almost mid winter and the island is as cold as it should be, dark about 4.30 and thoughts inevitably are turning towards Christmas, my thoughts have also turned towards producing some winter paintings after my chilly afternoon walk along the waterfront.