Mill Road Winter Fair

Mill Road Winter Fair ink, watercolour and coloured pencil

On Saturday 5th December I joined the Cambridge Urban Sketchers to sketch the annual Mill Road Winter Fair. A few hardy souls gathered at the skateboard ramp at the Parkside end of Mill Road at midday before settling off to find a sheltered spot to sketch. I settled on a spot near The Broadway and perched on my camping stool until I could hardly feel my fingers anymore. Discarded coffee cups and escaped balloons swept past me as I was buffeted by the wind and I finally gave in and headed off to Romsey Mill Community Centre cafe to meet up with everyone else and thaw out with tea and cake! I added a bit more colour when I got home and got my fingers unfrozen!

This was my first trip out with Urban Sketchers since breaking my ankle in September and I hope to join the London Urban Sketchers next Saturday in Trafalgar Square. 

Mill Cottage

Last summer during the NGS open gardens I visited Impington Mill, to do some sketching and produced this drawing.

I have since made a watercolour, pen and coloured pencil version, which I intend to be the first in a series of paintings of local landmarks. I'm going to visit the mill again next month to draw the windmill itself. Impington Mill will be open during National Mills weekend 9th and 10th May from 10.00 to 16.00. I believe it will also be open for Histon and Impington Open Gardens on Sunday 14 June.

Pet Portraits

I have just updated my website www.suesmithart.com, with a new prices page for commissions. I am taking orders now for Christmas, please take a look. You can contact me at suebellhill@gmail.com.

I'm back

Mixed Veg

After a long absence I have come back to my neglected blog. Due an ongoing medical condition which I won't bore you with here I haven't been able to post anything for a while. But I haven't been entirely idle and am delighted to announce that my painting Mixed Veg has been accepted by the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society's Annual Open International Exhibition. The exhibition will run from Monday 13th September until Friday 1st October at the Stamford Arts Centre. I will be attending the private view on the 13th and look forward to meeting some fellow artists that I only know through forums and blogs in the flesh.

I also have a new website, Sue Smith Art at www.suesmithart.com. This very much a work in progress so any comments gratefully received.

I have some sketches which I will post shortly, some of them are on the website under sketchbooks

Sketching in the Botanic Gardens

Cory Lodge, pen and wash

I spent a delightful day at the University Botanic Gardens in Cambridge today. I am very lucky to be able to get a bus from the end of my road that takes me all the way to the Station Road entrance in about 30 to 40 minutes, so loaded with my sketch kit plus a few additions I set off this morning to do some sketching. My first stop was the cafe, where refreshed with a mug of Blackberry and Nettle tea and a slice of Florentine I settled down on the terrace outside to do the above sketch of the building called Cory Lodge.


"Cory Lodge" before wash was applied


Outside the hothouses, coloured pencil in Moleskine

This is a coloured pencil sketch. I don't do much sketching from life in coloured pencil and need to practice more!


Gardener's trolley, pen and wash

I was looking for something to do a quick sketch of before heading home when I caught sight of this trolley which was obligingly parked opposite a sheltered bench. I got some funny looks from the gardener who was watering the border that he had just planted up!

My sketches cannot do the gardens justice so I took a few pics as well : )

Biscuit finished

Here he is finished. I might tweak a few things here and there, but it is essentially done. I just need to think of a title.

Biscuit WIP update 3

I have had a bit more time today, so managed to get quite a bit more done.

Biscuit WIP update 2

Here is an update, I haven't had much time to spend on this, and there are still things that need fixing, but it'll get there.

Biscuit WIP

Prismacolor on Sennelier pastelboard

I've started a new piece in coloured pencil. This is one of my cats, Biscuit sitting on the fence between our and our neighbours' gardens, where he likes to sit and torment the neighbours' dog while they are out. She can see him through their kitchen window and goes mad while he sits smugly and safely out of reach.

Cactus Monday

Here is my contribution to Cactus Monday this week. It is a Zebra Plant done in Prismacolor and Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencil in my A5 Winsor and Newton sketchbook. Hope you like it.

EDM 2 Draw lamp

EDM 2 pen and watercolour

This is the second item on the Every Day Matters list, a lamp at our local Chinese restaurant, The Pheonix. I've got a very long way to go to catch up!

New Website

Painted Ponies
2008
Coloured Pencil
Copyright Sue Smith

I have a new website for my fine art work, http://sitekreator.com/SueSmith mainly coloured pencil at the moment, but I will add some more soon. Please take a look and let me know what you think.