Author: Marina

One Year of Botanical Painting

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I took on a botanical painting class last September at the Landmark Art Centre in Teddington with botanical artist Marcia Hughes. I’ve always been fascinated by botanical illustration but never actually thought that I would have enough patience to try it. Still a long way to go, but I’m loving it…


Pen & Wash

Water Level Indicator

St Paul’s Cathedral

Canary Wharf

I was reading the SAA July issue last night and I found the article on Allan Kirk’s sketching technique quite interesting. He uses Stabilo Fineliner pens for quick pen and wash studies to ‘capture the moment’. I had some coloured pens for some time now, but don’t use them very often as I prefer sketching with watercolours. I thought I would give it a go as the technique allows for really quick sketches on the move. I used some pictures I took during a boat trip on the Thames; it took me about 15 minutes to do all three of them and the results were not as bad as I thought. I used heavy cartridge paper to minimize buckling, although I’d like to do some further tests using watercolour paper.

RWS Friends Sketching Day – 27th June 2010


Holland Park – The Arboretum

Holland Park – The Pond behind Lord Holland’s Statue

Holland Park – Kyoto Garden

Had a fantastic day yesterday in Holland Park. It was about 30degC and the watercolours were drying very quickly. The sun was so strong you could hardly see the real colour of things. I managed to get three small sketches done before meeting for lunch at the cafe’ (it was too hot to sit in the sun!). I also spent a bit of time taking some pictures with my new camera, but had to revert to the auto mode as I’m still not ready to use the manual settings!

Homemade gifts for my friend’s baby – Part I





When my friend told us she was expecting a baby, I’ve decided to make something to celebrate her pregnancy. I had some spare towel fabric which was perfect to make a burp cloth. For the turtle I used some scrap felt from another project I’m working on. All sewed together very easily, although the stitching on the appliqué are far from perfect!

First post and first craft project


I made this felt application for a plain orange cushion we bought for our sofa. I cut the tree from a recycled felted sweater I got from a charity shop and then sew it to the cushion. The sewing part was a bit difficult, but i was pleased with the overall result.