Autumn is a time of renewed energy, and a return to boots and knitwear. The past week I’ve noticed our dog walks are scented with blackberries and this year’s drought has hastened the arrival of conkers, acorns and turning trees. All of these are creating an interesting seasonal change to our landscape.

At home, darker evenings invite cuddling up with Mr B and Ollie in front of a good TV programme (more about those below). And after a couple of months of being uninterested in anything other than ice cream and fruit, my interest in cooking and baking (and eating!) has also been revived.

I mentioned to you a few weeks back that I anticipated spending August enjoying the creativity of others while keeping my own art practice light and playful. I have thoroughly enjoyed sticking to this plan and wanted to share some highlights with you.

TV

Bookish.

Over the past few weeks, Mr B and I have welcomed long awaited follow up seasons for some of our favourite programmes. Bookish season 2, we devoured over a week. The only disappointment was that it was just six episodes long.

Season 1 of this cleverly constructed post WWII crime solving series, written by and starring Mark Gatiss, is also still available to watch. So, if you’re new to it, I’d recommend catching that first as it helps to know the background before engaging with series 2.

The acting is superb, the knitwear delightful, and the unconventional relationships between the main characters (for us in 2026 but perhaps quite common place out of necessity in 1946) are both moving and compelling.

Ludwig

Another season 2 that we have been excited to get our teeth into is Ludwig. I’m a big fan of both David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin and they continue to amuse and infuriate in this part 2. He, once again but this time as himself, helps the police solve crimes using his puzzle setting genius. While she investigates the disappearance of her husband and David Mitchell’s twin brother.

Vigil

The other series I am currently obsessed with (Mr B not so much) is Vigil. I recently caught up with season 2 so I was ready when season 3 launched the other week. More than just a police procedural drama, this series gives us a glimpse into the murky world of international politics as Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie attempt to unravel who done it while also trying to make time for each other.

I’m all for females being cast in leading roles where the emphasis is on them being good at their jobs, not on what they look like. And these actors do it well. The only thing that isn’t quite believable is that they are allowed to work together on the same cases?

Audio Books

Better The Devil

When I spoke to you a month ago regarding my audiobook consumption, I mentioned the new JD Kirk I was champing at the bit to get on with. ‘Better the Devil’ was everything I’d hoped it would be. I chuckled my way through the crime solving antics of DCI Jack Logan and his team, as Jack’s nemesis, Bosco Maximuke, is released from prison and arrives back on his doorstep asking for help.

As usual it was expertly narrated by Angus King. Sadly, I binged it over a weekend and now must wait for book 23. I hope Mr Kirk is on it. Although I’d happily settle for another Robert Hoon or DI Heather Filson book in the meantime. If you like your police procedural books full of witty banter you can’t go wrong with a JD Kirk series.

The Masquerades of Spring

During August I got reacquainted with Ben Aaoronovich and his Rivers of London world with ‘The Masquerades of Spring’. As soon as I saw that it was narrated by the wonderful voice of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith I had to purchase it. I was quickly immersed in the magical realism of the Jazz Age in New York. Witty and smart, as expected from this author, and a little PG Wodehouse in its delivery, it was great fun.

The Secrets we Hide

On a more serious note, I listened to the second of Karin Slaughter’s North Falls books, ‘The Secrets we Hide.’ It is testament to her story telling skills that something so gritty and lacking in humour can keep me hooked for so many hours. I must keep listening to solve the case! The troubled relationship between Jude and Emmie, the two main characters, is also interesting as is the idea of living in a small town where everyone is into your business. And you’re related to most of them.

Written Word Books

Forgotten Frost

I’ve also read a few books too. ‘Forgotten Frost,’ book 7 of Wes Markin’s Whitby’s Forgotten Victims was another fine experience. I love how the author has many points of view going at the same time from people who have been impacted by the newly uncovered victim. These add depth to the police procedural bit where leads of mature male and young, autistic, female sergeant (and her assistance dog) present an interesting and unusual dynamic for an ongoing story line throughout the series.

Drawing

And finally… If you, like me, enjoy drawing wildlife and learning a bit more about the subjects as you go, I can recommend Wild Life Drawing. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the couple of classes I’ve attended so far. I love that I come away richer in knowledge while also feeling good that my relaxing 90 minutes or so of listening and drawing has also resulted in a charitable donation. Did you know that hares don’t have paw pads? They have hairy feet apparently, with crampon style claws.

As mentioned before, there is no paid subscriber drawing date this month. But I hope some of my recent posts will encourage you to have a play, perhaps with anthropomorphism or continuous line?

And finally, I am currently researching a new Ollie story which involves rewatching an episode of Supernatural this evening. I know. It’s a tough gig!

Much love.

Nicky x

August with Beth Spencer’s Introvert Drawing Club has been dedicated to anthropomorphic animals. I caught a replay of a session she hosted the other week with Sarah Dyer and had so much fun I have been obsessively drawing human-animal hybrids ever since.

I was brought up on a diet of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town books and Hanna Barbera cartoons (Hong Kong Phooey being my absolute favourite). So perhaps it’s no surprise that anthropomorphic animals have cropped up regularly in my creative practice over the years. Usually when art has got a bit heavy and serious and I’m looking to lighten things up again.

The challenge for me has always been where do I want to sit on the spectrum of cute to weird? This time around I have been really pleased with where I landed.

Here’s a video of what I’ve been up to. I hope it makes you smile.

But the main reason I love continuous line drawing is that it is a way of working things out in a flowing way through my hand onto the page. It feels almost sculptural. No mark is considered wrong but is built on, remaining as history of the exploration.

If I’m feeling timid or overwhelmed at the beginning of a new drawing I can keep my continuous line light (through pressure or colour), deepening the tone as the drawing resolves.

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While I am grateful of the invaluable service they provide, visiting the Vets is rarely a fun day out. It usually involves sitting around in a small waiting area in close proximity to other nervous pets and owners, hoping that my own dog can remain calm. And when he eventually gets called, that he allows a complete stranger to do intimate things to him without taking offence.

It was Ollie’s annual check up the other week and he would like to tell you about it from his point of view.

We hope it makes you smile.

I must admit that the persistent heat and my early morning attempts to beat it have begun to affect my creative energy levels. Getting up early has never been something I’ve struggled with. But when combined with nights interrupted by the noise of the neighbourhood coming in through the open bedroom windows, followed by a normal working routine which doesn’t allow for a cheeky lunchtime siesta, the weariness has started to set in.

Ollie, on the other hand, is coping much better as he is an expert at daytime snoozing.

While I may not have a holiday planned for August, I shall be taking it easier this month and giving myself permission to indulge in other people’s creativity rather than beat myself up for being unproductive. I know I’ll feel the buzz of September when it arrives and I’ll be ready and inspired with all the good stuff that I’ll have consumed over the coming four weeks.

My own art sessions will be kept short and sweet and mostly focused on play. The rest of the time I plan to listen to Audiobooks, read in my egg chair in the shade at the bottom of the garden, and binge the occasional TV series when it’s too hot to go outside.

On that note, I have been practicing already. Here are some things I have greatly enjoyed over the past few weeks and can heartily recommend:

• ‘Ride or Die’ on Amazon Prime starring Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer as two fifty something best friends who end up on the run from and entangled up with some rather nasty criminals. Oh, and one of the besties hasn’t been completely honest with the other about what she does for a living. The chemistry between the two leads is fabulous and two midlife actors playing midlife female characters who are not ready to become invisible is wonderfully refreshing.

• ‘Starlings’ a fantastic first book by the actor Russell Tovey, dramatised by Audible and starring some fab actors including Andrew Scott and George Mackay. It’s hard to explain how captivating and moving this story is. The lead character, Donald, is an aspiring drag queen, thrown out by his father when he was caught as a teenager wearing his mother’s clothes. He is annoying, selfish and unlikeable. Then one day his younger brother turns up at his door. I listened obsessively to this book over a weekend and can’t recommend it highly enough.

• ‘We are all guilty here’ by Karin Slaughter is my current audiobook. As is usual from this author, the subject matter is hard hitting. But also no surprise, the storytelling is compelling. I’m sneaking every opportunity to listen in my need to find out who really did it. (And also to clear the decks for the latest JD Kirk book which I have waiting in the wings).

• ‘The Weekend’ is an addictive read from TM Logan. I’d not experienced anything by this author before and even though I kinda guessed the major twist early on, I still enjoyed it. The premise is something I can’t wait to discuss around a dinner table with friends.

• We also saw Adam Holmes, a talented Scottish singer songwriter, who played a local church. I hadn’t heard anything by him before the evening and went on the recommendation of a friend. Despite the lack of bar and the rather hard pews, we had a great evening. If storytelling in song accompanied by masterful guitar playing is your thing, check him out.

• Also, Peggy Dean’s annual free Summer Creative Retreat is currently running. It’s full of bitesize art classes from a host of teachers. I’ve dipped in and out of the recordings and found some fun play prompts and inspiration. There’s nothing like filling up a sketchbook in a week with doodles, patterns, colour palettes and the like.

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Our dog walks are mostly a pleasure and often sociable, particularly at the country park where routines mean we see the same people. Standing and chatting with an owner while Ollie has a game with their dog is a regular occurrence and there is an almost club like feel.

But in some places, it can be isolated, p…

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• No pressure to make anything good or finished what with all the interruptions e.g. conversation, drinks and food arriving, subject matter moving and leaving etc.

• Limited supplies meant making the most of what I have with me and really getting to know them better in the process.

• No what shall I draw today paralysis as there are always cups, people, dogs, Mr B (usually) and sometimes pot plants in the vicinity to draw.

• A return to drawing from life and embracing the frustration and fun of trying to capture people and animals who are constantly in motion.

Looking back through the pages I can see a progress made, particularly with my drawings of Mr B. I put it down to a practice of seeing the same face from that intense observation that only drawing someone allows (if you looked that hard at a person, even your nearest and dearest, without the excuse of capturing in pen on paper it would be very weird and uncomfortable!). He summed it up brilliantly by saying that I was capturing more with less.

Most of the portraits showed some likeness, particularly towards the end of the book, which was pleasing. It also allowed me to experiment in ways of approaching the same subject matter keeping it interesting while allowing me much fun with layering up drawing media. This I have discovered makes me very happy.

Here’s a flip through of the entire book which I hope you find interesting.

And in the video below I talk through the limited supplies in my travelling kit.

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In the previous episode of ‘Beware the cracks in the pavement’, Ollie didn’t. He now finds himself in a strange place, face to face with a huge rat.

We hope it makes you smile.

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And after finding an old pillow that I couldn’t throw away my explorations into a 3d version of her have progressed.

I’m a hoarder of stuff that might come in useful for making things with, even before becoming aware of the environmental impact of being wasteful. It’s a hangover from childhood which I mostly blame on Blue Peter, the kids TV programme, where Lesley, Peter and John showed me what cardboard boxes, toilet roll doodas and washing up liquid bottles could become.

The same applies to fabric items. There’s a huge satisfaction from repurposing quality cotton and linen for textile art, particularly if they carry the stains of their history in their weave. Of course I wash them before working with them. But I believe the yellowing that comes with time and use adds more character to my art dolls than staining new fabric with tea or coffee ever can.

So imagine my delight when I found an old pillow in the depths of the wardrobe. Not being an item that charity shops would take in, it was destined for landfill if I couldn’t use it for something creative. The fabric was a thick, 100% cotton brocade and perfect for hare art doll experiments. Not only that, but I now had an additional supply of polyester stuffing courtesy of the pillows innards.

While the knitted experiments I had already started were more sculpture like in their intention, there is always something about woven fabric and stitch that has me returning to my childhood doll making obsession.

So I sketched out a few potential hare doll versions and stitched and stuffed a few prototypes. But they were altogether too cute, and in need of clothes, more like a child’s toy than a OOAK art doll.

Then, last weekend I was messing around in my sketchbook and came up with an alternative, simplified, flat head shape which had me reaching for the remains of the pillow material. What no gusset? I hear you say. I know! I was sceptical too but somehow after a firm stuffing and some stitched sculpting she worked. And not only that, I was delighted at her magical, almost skeletal appearance.

I have yet to work out how to represent her tail but otherwise I think she’s done so I’m moving onto the next version. I have some coffee bean sacks waiting in the wings courtesy of our favourite roaster. Let’s see how hessian works out. There may be much fraying!

This Sunday we have the second and concluding part of our latest totally made up Ollie story which we hope you’ll enjoy. And on Sunday 26th it is our paid subscriber drawing date.

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We’ve the first part in a brand new Ollie story for you today. We hope it makes you smile.

You can catch the second part in a fortnight.

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You can imagine my excitement which has fed into more drawings and 3D experiments over the past week, and even a poem (not yet for public consumption).

Looking back over my recent sketchbooks I noticed that I was getting bored with the same types of composition. Remembering a trick I first learned from Louise Fletcher and later from the Art2Life coaching team, I decided to shake things up. I explain more in the video below.

The next video is a time lapse of the ‘big reveal’ of two ‘starts’, one based on line drawings and the other a mixed media playground. Following on from that is another video where I talk through what I ended up with.

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A look back through my camera roll last weekend reminded me of some of the work I have done in recent years that feature this beautiful and elusive creature. The photo below is a textile sculpture I made in the Summer of 2022.

Filling one of my favourite fountain pens (my Conway Stewart Nebula for any pen nerds out there) with a fresh barrel of ink, I reached for a new notebook this morning and have been scribbling furiously asking myself the question: why am I drawn back to her now?

While I see Fox as male, modern, and a gateway figure living in both the human and natural world, Hare is female and full of ancient wisdom. She has no place in our world and does not desire it. She represents a simple and natural existence and suffers hunting in the name of ‘sport’. Hare is elusive, relying on her speed for survival and if we are lucky to spot her, she provides a fleeting glimpse of where we came from. An ancient symbol of fertility she is a connection to Mother Earth, and in her alter ego as witches familiar, she is an enabler of feminism.

The mixed media painting on wooden panel below is from a series created in the Summer of 2024.

From my journaling I was surprised to discover that Hare and my current renewed obsession with her may be my tonic to the news. It’s my attempt to dilute the poison of far-right politics, capitalism at its worst, and the increasing vocalisation of toxic masculinity with its views on how women should behave, courtesy of the manosphere. I know this sounds a bit heavy for a seasonal infatuation with a muse but it is useful to understand what is driving it and I find journaling is a great way of getting to the bottom of things.

As is my usual practice, a sketchbook is serving as my container for drawing research. I also have a notebook for my written thoughts and I’ve started on some three dimensional experiments with the beginnings of a new knitted sculpture shown in the photo.

Below I’m sharing a video of the first couple of weeks in this new project sketchbook and in our paid subscriber playdate this Sunday I plan to add to it.

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We’ve just had a short break in the beautiful Welsh countryside.

Ollie had such a good time he wanted to tell you about it.

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This was my 10th consecutive 100 day project, my ninth completed and possibly my most fun one to date. With absolutely no pressure to make a thing, although sometimes a thing appeared, I freely engaged daily with getting out the art supplies and putting them to paper. And while the result was often a hot mess of a page, plenty of gems appeared too.

I’ve mentioned before how I’m endeavouring to make a habit of looking back in my sketchbooks to inform what I do next. Asking the questions what did I enjoy?/not? Also: what if I tried it again?

The things I noted from this project were:

• I must have layers and, like in school maths classes, I need to show my working (mistakes are decisions to do it differently and I believe deserve to remain as part of the exploration).

• I love, love, love wax resist, especially light orange under indigo, and drawing with masking fluid.

  

• Drawing in ink using feathers, brushes and dip pens creates loose and interesting line work.

• If in doubt, draw a hare on it (we’ll be drawing hares in our paid subscriber play date on 28 June).

• Blind contour drawings can result in some fun abstraction.

• I love transparency and glazing, particularly when combined with a dollop of opacity.

  

I filmed a talk through of some of the pages that especially resonated with me from this project which I hope you find of interest.

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Ollie and I were walking in the grounds of a large company HQ, originally a huge country house estate, when we came upon a significant number of large, black birds on the lawn. I automatically assumed they were crows.

But something appeared to be different about this gang as they all had light grey beaks. Woohoo, ravens I thought. But checking in with Merlin I found out that they were rooks.

Since then I have discovered that despite their Amber environmental status we also have Corvus frugilegus (rooks) frequenting the open spaces and trees on our road. Eager to understand how they differ from crows, jackdaws and ravens, I did a bit of research.

Rooks differ in appearance from the other members of the crow group having a bare, greyish white face. They also have thinner, pointier beaks and a peaked forehead. Unlike crows, rooks are very sociable, are rarely spotted solo and hang out in large groups called a parliament (also a clamour, or a building). Often these groups include Jackdaws.

Opportunistic and resourceful feeders, rooks have a broad diet and from February they nest in ‘Rookeries’ located in the top branches of mature trees. These are large and messy and can be used for decades. Like crows, rooks are often monogamous and while pairs only nest once a year, they choose to hangout with their partner outside of bringing up the family.

Rooks have black plumage with a purple sheen in daylight and weigh in at 280 to 340g. Their wingspan is just under a metre. The oldest rook on record apparently lived for nearly 23 years but the average lifespan is more like six.

One of the reasons why I am so fascinated with Corvids is their intelligence, and rooks are no exception. They can use basic tools to the same degree as a chimpanzee and can problem solve e.g. using pebbles to raise a water level for drinking (and I thought that was just a fable!).

Here’s my playful depiction of a rook and this Sunday, 31 May, we shall be drawing more birds in our monthly paid subscriber play date.

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Today I would like to share the anatomy of a cockapoo with you.

Here it is in diagram form. I must apologise to my chemistry teacher (I sadly forget her name it was so long ago) who taught us that only horizontal labelling lines were acceptable.…

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Instead of a story for you today, I have a short audio recording I made of a Eurasian blackcap singing it’s little heart out in a Hawthorne bush at the country park.

A couple of weeks back I admitted to becoming an avid user of the free Merlin Bird ID app and was very surprised to discover that the most prolific bird I was hearing locally was a …

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The other evening I went to see Pam Ayres, one of my favourite poets, performing in Winchester. She was fabulous and both Mr B and myself agreed that we hadn’t laughed so much in ages.

Both of us have been inspired to write poetry since and while he won’t share his, here’s one of mine about a true happening in Ollie’s world this week.

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