Sea mist moving in across the south coast of the Isle of Wight. I don't like working from photos, so I photographed the view, did an A6 size colour sketch from memory and then used both the sketch and the photo.

This is coloured pencil on mountboard prepared with an acylic blue wash. The highlights and mist are done with oilpastel.
After  had phoptographed the painting I realised that I have two paintings in one:

and:

Visit to Gunwharf shopping mall; happilyI was left to my own devices with sketch pad and pen!
People at the ATM, cash from the wall; interesting postures:

I saw 2 later  at the bistro:

and now for something completely different, acrylic 7.5x4.5 ins on mountboard based on a pencil sketch completed at the South Wight last Sunday:

Musings

I've no idea who accesses this blog and for what reason; is it  out of curiosity to gaze momentarily at some fairly mediocre amateur art, or to read some of the little comments which accompany the images?  So, here are some thoughts which go with the images on this blog and related to this new picture. I'm an Anglican priest, a Benedictine oblate, a retiring mental health chaplain and an artist of passionate interest and mediocre capablity. They are all connected. It's all to do with contemplation. It's also to do with seeing the "sacred" in the ordinary stuff of life, looking for depth, shade, colour, nuances, connections and meanings. Prayer, art, contemplation, creativity, communication are all connected, what some people would call "spirituality", a much over-used word and one I shall personally be glad to be rid of. Basically, to draw and paint you have to see, and to see, you have to draw and paint. Watching and gazing are crucial to being a human being of depth.
If you want to engage with these thoughts I would be pleased to hear from you:
jehair777@aol.com or james.hair@live.co.uk

meanwhile, I drew this young lady as she was gazing at the incoming tide and did a small acrylic of her.

At portrait classes the tutor was keen on "quickies" as she called them; we moaned about doing them but I'm glad she insisted; I like quick images, they have vitality.This one has the permission of the sitter for its publication, very important!

Summer folk: there's something about the exuberance of summer in Britain, which fascinates me: the outlandish dress code or lack of..., tattoos and paunches alongside well dressed and carefully turned out 70 somethings, the over done gaudy colours; maybe it's something to with with "well it's not here for long so let's give it everything we've got!" I don't do great art but I enjoy recording what I see, so ....enjoy!

on Shanklin seafront there's  a great wobbly bouncy slide,lots of people wandering past it (acrylic 7.5x 4.5 ins); further on there's a row of beach huts, in front was a very mahogany man with clearly nothing better to do than sit all day in the sun. Good luck to him. I remembered the image and did 2 pictures, a first in  pastel pencil then a watercolour.

acrylic on mountboard, 7.5 x3.5 ins

icecream van on Southsea Common. Although the Spinnaker tower dominates, for me the focal point of the painting is the van.