This is a rather pissed-off looking donkey in Weston-super-Mare. Poor thing, it was early morning on a grey day on the beach – not really ideal. It was a flying visit just for an hour or two with Piers (which included a pretty good fry-up and a photo opportunity for Piers on The Pier), before continuing North to Birmingham for a friend’s birthday. Which featured some pretty amazing cake.

Over the past two weeks I’ve been sat on a train for a sum total of just over 30 hours, which is a hell of a long time. A lot of this time was spent drawing in the sketchbook I brought along for the purpose – so more of these to come.

This is a view I’ve been seeing a lot lately, which is partly why I haven’t blogged for a little while. I’ve gone off on a little mini tour of the UK to visit some people and see some stuff, because it seemed like a good way to get out of Falmouth for a bit as well as catch up with some far-away friends.

And so it was that last week I left Cornwall for Cheltenham, and tomorrow, having just visited Weston and Birmingham I’ll be off up to Hull and then to Edinburgh to catch a little of the Fringe before heading back down South – possibly via London, time and money permitting… and also depending on how much I miss Falmouth by then!

And of course I’m doing all of this by train. This means many, many hours of sitting in carriages with the very limited number of possessions I have brought with me (I have finally learned how to travel light – it’s only taken me three years) and entertaining myself by attempting to draw things out of the window in the ten seconds I have before they have passed. So there’ll be plenty of that to see when I have access to a scanner again…

And all the while I’m also still sort of house hunting in Falmouth. I’m staying down there for the foreseeable because of A) friends and B) the sea, and I have until the end of August to find a two-bedroom flat that’s within budget, won’t get damp in the winter and is big enough for a couple of people who really want to be painting too. Which could be tricky.

Boat number one, drawn from my current favourite place in the whole world – Stack Point, just South down the coast from the Falmouth beaches. I often walk the eight miles along the coast from Falmouth to Maenporth and back again, but usually during the heat of the day (which I invariably regret) – this time I went later on as the sun was starting to go down and it was amazing how different the landscape looked in the later light. Anyway pen and paper could never do the colour of the sea at dusk justice, so here’s a boat instead.

Photography, however, makes a better attempt:

Boat number two was sketched from the rocks on Gylly beach during low tide, when it’s possible to walk right the way along (or across the wall) to the tunnel and castle beaches. It’s generally much more pleasant to sit this end of the sand on hotter days because of the sheer volume of tourists that flock here every Summer. Whilst they are infinitely more interesting to draw, sometimes it’s nicer not to be completely surrounded…

This lady had a very impressive hat, which I didn’t quite manage to do justice.

I am desperately out of practice at this…

Last week I cleared out my studio for the final time. Now this is all that is left…

It’s been a good week for exhibitions!

It took a couple of days and a few visits to take in the whole of the fine art degree show at Woodlane, but it was well worth it – having been insulated, a little, in my own bubble down one end of the campus for the past few months it was a great opportunity to see some of the stuff others on the course had been busy with. I was definitely most impressed with the painting and printmaking; being a painter myself I suppose I feel a natural affinity with the way others treat the medium, and some of the pieces on show completely blew me away.

Aside from our own degree show, Falmouth has also seen the first years’ show at Wellington Terrace and the second years’ Art Zoo exhibition at The Fish Factory. And the degree shows on the Woodlane and Tremough campuses wasn’t just limited to fine art, either: there was some fantastic work to see from illustration, graphic design, photography and many other courses too. What with having to invigilate, juggle work work and sorting out my plans for the next few months I barely had enough time to see everything, but I took plenty of photos of the stuff I did manage to catch.

You can see the full set of around 100 photos (on flickr) by clicking here.

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Well here it is: my exhibition space in the fine art degree show! Very exciting.

We opened for the private view on Friday evening which was great – mainly to finally get a chance to see everyone else’s work. I’ll be heading back a couple of times this week though to take it all in properly; there are over 80 of us on fine art, and then there’s the illustration, graphics, textiles and photography courses to see too…

(click for huge)

I’ve been getting slack about updating here recently, so this is the beginning of me blogging properly again. In my defence, it has been the craziest few weeks I’ve had to endure for a long while!

The exhibition has finally been finished and, by now, also assessed; I should be getting my degree mark next week. In the meantime we open to the public tomorrow night which in itself is quite nerve-wracking.

It’s been a funny couple of weeks, ranging from the four-day set-up in the studios when all day every day was spent painting, sanding, organising, arranging, speculating, hanging – one of the most exhausting experiences of my life – to now, when all of a sudden I seem to have a lot of time, but still feeling on edge from the fact that it’s not quite over yet.

And then, on top of all this, is the slightly delayed – and very terrifying – response of “what do I do next?”

But more on that later.

Cornwall is encircled completely by coastal paths, ranging from beaches to waterfronts lined with shops to main roads, and I frequently do the 8-mile round trip to Maenporth and back. The photograph above is the view from Stack Point (I think), just beyond Swanpool beach – on the far left is Falmouth’s most popular Gyllyngvase beach, and beyond the headland to the right is Maenporth.

Every year FXU (Falmouth and Exeter Student’s Union) run a competition for students to design the hoodie for that year. For some reason it’s never a hugely popular competition – I was the only entry until recently! – but apparently my design was chosen out of the 7 that were entered by the closing date last week.

Which is nice.

And it means I get a free hoodie, as well as having my artwork live on at the university for a year after I’ve gone *sob sob*