Woolacombe Wip

 I love Woolacombe.
Its an amazing place at all times of the year,
In the winter when the sea is boiling and the wind is blowing, the only people on the beach are a few hardy dog walkers. 
And in the summer when it feels like the Mediterranean, the sea is turquoise, the sand is gold and the beach is covered in happy family's enjoying their holidays.

Started 15th of May 2024

Drawn on A2 paper with a 0.05 fine line pen

Coloured with Staedler fine line coloured pens.

The I decided I'd drawn one of the houses in the wrong place, so I turned the board and started again drawing from the other side. However  the second drawing ended up out of proportion, so I turned the board again and carried on with the first drawing.

Today (30th May 2024) I've added a new house in the place that the original should of been, but as you can see my new problem is the first drawing is seriously close to the second (discarded) drawing, I will need a mount to cover it up.

In other news the my website has finally gone, I feel more emotional than I thought I would, I've had a website for 25 years, its the end of an era or maybe its the start of a new beginning.

Ilfracombe update - 30th May 2024.

I'm happy with the progress, I still need to take more photo's of Broad street and it's not so easy to pop over without a car.

Photo's on my Phone 9th of May - 25th May 2024

The sun shone a lot, the dogs were hot, so we dumped them in the river under the bridge in Lynmouth and accidentally had a cheeky pint.

The next evening we walked the dogs on Countisbury Hill, the photo of Tinks is to remind myself that old dogs are just as disobedient as young dogs. The sun was still shining so we had another cheeky pint at The Blue Ball on the way home.

As the sun was still shining Mummy and I took the boys to the beach, they all swam, but the sea is still cold for me. I'll wait a few more weeks till the water warms up.

Then the sun stopped shining.

Monday's walk was at Crow Point in the wind and rain!

I started a new drawing of Woolacombe its a stunning massive sandy beach. It's a famous surfing beach and you can see Lundy, so I decided to draw some of the houses instead!

 

I sold a drawing of Ilkerton Ridge at the Paracombe Art Exhibition, so we walked the dogs on Holdstone Down to celebrate, the view is stunning in every direction.

I did a sketch and am going to do a drawing of it at some point in time.

My lovely friend Jacquie (who runs our local dog shop - https://www.thelynvalleydoghouse.com/ )

organised a big pup meet. 

I don't have many photo's, luckily Jacquie managed to capture this one of Siri in the paddling pool, he got thrown in the river on the way home!

Then the car started smoking, its at the garage, no idea how much its going to cost or whether it can be mended. I did suggest we leave it at the garage, sell everything we own, buy a van and travel, but Phil said he didn't want to sell his special tagine, so guess we won't be taking to the road after all.

All our adventures for the foreseeable future will be at home, we have feet and the cliff railway.

Ilfracombe update - 25th May 2024. Still no bottom left corner, but I've nearly finished the yachts in the harbour.

Ilfracombe map - WIP

Ever since I finished my 2 drawings of Lynton and Lynmouth last spring I have been talking about drawing Ilfracombe in the same style.

Ilfracombe is one of our closest towns, 13 miles along the coast, it has a very pretty harbour, some beautiful Victorian/Edwardian buildings, including the stunning Earlsdale B&B that I had the please of drawing a couple of years ago.  https://www.theearlsdale.co.uk/

Ilfracombe is also the home of "Verity" Damien Hirst's giant statue, she stands on the harbour wall looking out to sea. All of which made Ilfracombe the obvious choice for my next map drawing.

I started taking photo's last year in June on a glorious sunny day, the excuse was a birthday lunch at S & P Fish Shop on the harbour, they do the most amazing sea food platters, no frills and straight off the fishing boats .... heaven.

I had lots of other drawings to work on so I didn't started working on the drawing till Christmas. I didn't have enough reference photos so I posed over and took some more. The weather was gloomy, I haven't edited them so you can see what I am working with.

I have deleted most of the early drawings to save space on my computer, but I posted the first drawings on Instagram on 7th January, which means I have been working on the drawing for over 4 months.

The original drawing is drawn with a 0.05 fine line pen. I don't know Ilfracombe as intimately as I do Lynton & Lynmouth so I struggled with position and scale, the original drawing soon became a set of sketches that I had to piece together like a jigsaw.

 I still haven't finished all of the original sketches, but I couldn't wait to start putting them together in photoshop. The below is one of the later working images dated 23rd of April. I add layers and draw over the top of the working drawing.

You can find all the progress photo's on my instagram feed  https://www.instagram.com/amandaperkinsdrawings/

Below is today's save, as you can see I still have a long way to go, I still have to photograph the bottom left of the image, sketch it and add it to the bottom layer. There is no eta, it will be finished when its finished, fingers crossed its before Christmas 😄

Goodbye Website

I have has a website since 1999.
Over the course of time I have built several sites with the help of site builders, I honestly think that this one is the best, but now is the time to say goodbye forever.

Before it goes you can find it here Amanda's Perkins Art

The site has galleries and a shop, the shop has never sold much more than a few crochet patterns, some months the sales will pay for the site, sometimes not.

Wix my site provider has tripled the prices of its services, even though I love it I can't justify the price for a glorified portfolio. Wix will close my site and I will lose my domain name on the 30th of May.

I'm not entirely sure what will happen as they provide a free website service and might transfer some of it to a free site, only time will tell.

The demise of my site will leave me without a on-line presence, so I have resurrected this blog.

I've had a blog since 2006, I started writing it for promotional purposes for my then business The Natural Dye Studio.  

It was called Dye Studio Diary.

The blog is a mix of yarn news & photo's and a personal diary of my life. 

In 2010/11 we went through a crisis of redundancy and losing our house, I blogged all the way through pouring my heart out, for me it was a cathartic process. At some point later I deleted all the emotional posts on the advice of my book agent, she didn't think potential publishers would want to read them.

My next blog was Amanda's Crochet Blanket Adventures

Again it was a mix of personal and professional, it covered the birth of my grand boy's and the birth of my crochet books.

At some point in time I stopped blogging as I had a brand new shiny website with a blog of its own.

Amanda Perkins Art website blog

I never liked it, it had no soul so I tried to be professional, I didn't blog very often as I had nothing to say.

There's not much more I can say about it, except it might disappear on the 30th of may.

So I'm back here after 4 years, posting about my life and art, it feels like I am talking to an old friend.

I know not many people will read this as the Facebook and Instagram algorithms have silenced me and only a handful of people will ever find it. 

But that's ok, my grandboy's will find me one day if they ever decide to look.

Love you both 💙💙

Photo's on my phone 25th April to 8th of May 2024

 Good morning Blog

Time for another "Photo's on my Phone"
All the photo's are unedited, normally I brighten them up, but its been so dark and gloomy, it will be good to compare when the sun finally arrives.

Evening dog walks in The Valley of Rocks (which is 10 minute walk from front door). 

There is a touch of green on the hills, hopefully spring is finally here.

 

 

We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary with a road trip, both of us love driving so a road trip is always a big treat. This time we went over the border into Cornwall to Charlestown, just outside St Austell. We have a lot of local St Austell Brewery pubs, so decided we would got to test it in its hometown. It rained .... at lot, but we had a lovely pub lunch, the beer was good and the dogs enjoyed the sea!!

My current wip, its the stones on Lee bay beach, I like the close up detail but not sure about the overall image.

It's an A2 drawing, watercolour background, details are drawn with acrylic pen. Acrylic pens are a wondrous invention, minimum mess, maximum coverage. I can't be trusted with paint, I end up wearing most of it in an effort to protect my project.

An evening at our local doggy play barn with a couple of friends. Siri, Milo & Edith are ball obsessed, Tinks & Lulu happily wandered around in the background doing their own thing.

Sunday dog walk on the moor with Mummy, the dogs and grandboy's, we found a lizard, but it was gone before I could take a photo. Poor Bert was distraught he's missed it, he was too busy shouting to get Siri out of a gorse bush.

On Saturday I attended the Lyn Valley market at the town hall, it was the first the day the sun had shone for a long time, so not many people, however surprisingly I sold quite a lot.

My next town hall market is the first Saturday in July (not sure of the exact date.)

Bank holiday Monday on Dunster beach, Grandpa and the boys made sand castles and I put my feet in the sea for the first time this year.

You might wonder why there are so many of the photo's feature Siri, he is not just a dog, he is so much more. Like my previous German Shepherds he wants to be part of everything I do and needs my constant attention. Its more like having another small child, but at the same time he is my comfort dog, he gives me love, loyalty and support

Without him I struggle to leave the house on my own, crippled with anxiety and self doubt, but with him by my side I can go anywhere, do anything, be anything I want.