Sam aka LymphomaLass

Look! My sunflower’s flowering!

Thank you so much to Joanna Scott-Aspray of the Cheshire Club and Victoria Quance, who ran the Spring Seasonal Circle where we planted the seeds.

Now, shall I draw it in silverpoint or paint it - in acrylics or watercolours?

Thanks again!

Last week I showed you my piece “Suminagashi and Pen Seahorse” so today I’d like to share my 34 second YouTube video on creating the Suminagashi “floating ink” Japanese marbling background to this art, available with copious notes at:

It might provide a fun school holiday activity for someone?

It’s hard to get right but I had great fun trying!

Thanks!

Just to share my entries for the Royal Society of Marine Artists’ exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London in September!

Wish me luck!

Today I’d like to show you a piece I created just last month: Suminagashi and Pen Seahorse.

It’s a combination of an experiment with “floating ink” Japanese marbling and a drawing of one of the endangered British seahorses being bred at Sw Môr Môn or Anglesey Sea Zoo.

To read more about my inspiration for this piece, and to buy prints and other items printed with this art, please head over to:

The unframed 25cm x 20cm original is available for £45 including UK postage, or £65 in a white mount and frame. Please just email me at [email protected] if you’re interested in purchasing it!

Many thanks

At 9:30am, back from my overnight unpaid carer responsibilities in Stockton Heath and ready to start a full day of figure painting class!

Thank you very much to the Royal Drawing School and Andy Pankhurst for giving me such an inspiring and educative week of summer school!

Mi gaethon ni allanfa hyfryd dros y penwythnos - gweld y môr-wenoliaid pigddu ym Mae Cemlyn!

We had a lovely treat over the weekend - seeing the sandwich terns in Cemlyn Bay!

Mwynhewch y lluniau! Enjoy the pictures!

Yesterday I got to send out Ruby's pawtrait to her super owner!

This was an especially lovely one to paint, as Ruby just seemed to pop out of the page to say hello!

I hope you think she's fabulous too!

Today I’d like to share some amazing news and to give a massive thank you to the Royal Drawing School in London!

The School has very kindly given me a free place on their Summer School “Painting the Figure” taught online by Andy Pankhurst!

Andy’s a superb teacher, we’ve had great models for our first two days on “proportion” and “tone” and I’m learning a huge amount! I’m really looking forward to finding out about “temperature” in figure painting tomorrow!

More about the Royal Drawing School’s courses is available at:

Thank you again to the Royal Drawing School!

Absolutely delighted to have at least one of my artworks “longlisted” for the second stage of judging in the Visual Art Open 2026!

Thank you @visualartopen and @visualartistsassociation!

Wish me luck!

Thanks!

Today I’d like to show you another of my pieces literally drawn with silver rubbed onto specially coater paper - similar to the way Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Jan van Eyck and other Renaissance artists made drawings before 1564, when a large, pure deposit of graphite was discovered in Borrowdale near Keswick in the Lake District and pencils became a thing.

This one is of some wild cherry blossoms from our garden.

The A5 original, which will gradually turn from grey to a sepia colour, is available unframed for £45 including UK postage, or framed for £65. Please just email me at [email protected] if you’d like to purchase it.

Prints and all sorts of lovely things printed with this drawing are available at:

where there is currently up to 40% off sitewide!

Many thanks!

I had such a lovely time the last two Thursday evenings - out sketching in the open air with Eddisbury Artists, around Frodsham and Kingsley. So I decided to print out my finished paintings and use them to make thank you cards for the two families who very kindly welcomed us into their farms and gardens - their homes!

Do you think they'll like them?

Thanks for looking!

A massive thank you to Joanna Scott-Aspray of The Cheshire Club, Victoria Quance, Sarah White (Branding and Visibility) and Paul Lucas of Apple Catering for a great Seasonal Circle in Nether Alderley today!

I always take away so much from these events, which are a mix of self-development, finding new ideas, tweeking business strategy, taking time out from working in the business to work on it and self, and meeting and seeing friends, in a structured but relaxed and supportive environment.

And I was so touched by Paul making me a delicious fresh fruit salad and bringing along my favourite peanut cookies, to make sure there was something tasty I'd feel confident eating!

Don't be fooled!

It's been that weekend when our village's Rose Queen is crowned and there will be little girls wishing it was them and young women feeling like they always get the fuzzy end of the lollypop.

But that lovely Rose Queen may or may not be living the charmed life her contemporaries imagine.

If her life is anything like mine it'll be full not just of the public victories and joys, but also the private disappointments and griefs we keep to ourselves.

I felt a bit of a fraud posting my pictures from sketching hollyhocks in a local farmer's garden yesterday. Yes, it was a lovely evening and a huge privilege, and I definitely want to acknowledge those kind of unwarranted kindnesses here. But last week was also a hard week, with some big disappointment, many I can't share without exposing what's private to others. And I do want to share the positive here, rather than build a series of whinge-fests.

One thing I can share is how last week I crashed out of an online Welsh language summer school before the end, when we lost electricity and consequently wifi after a toilet bowl cracked and leaked into the kitchen wiring... At least no one was hurt, a plumber came to help, we have another loo (Phew!) and we've a new one arriving next week.

So I'd say, yes, don't be fooled by all you see on social media. It's not necessarily that many of us lie. It's just that there's more happening than most of us want to share.

Like my sunflower, planted at a Seasonal Circle event facilitated by Victoria Quance and organised by Joanna Scott-Aspray of the Cheshire Club. It's lovely and about to flower, jam packed full of vitality. That's the truth of it. But I'm not showing you the other one, that sprouted first, but then shrivelled and died while we were away one weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Just to show you my Thursday early evening, when as part of Eddisbury Artists I gained privileged access to paint in a garden and farm in Cheshire - on private property very generously shared with us for a couple of hours by the family who call it home!

In the last picture you can see what I painted!

Thanks!

Today I’d like to show you my pen and watercolour piece of yr Harbwr yn Ninbych-y-Pysgod, otherwise known as Tenby Harbour.

To hear more about my inspiration for this one, and to buy prints and this painting printed on all sorts of lovely things, please head over to:

The A4 original is £65 unframed, or £85 in an A3 white frame and mount! To take advantage of this bargain price, please email me at [email protected].

Thanks!

How's your day been?

I'm in the middle of attending a week long Welsh language summer school run on Zoom, so I'm quite tired, but I also found the time and energy to test some new acrylic paint pens.

Hope your week keeps going well!

Just to share some of the art I've been working on this month!

I hope you like how it's developing.