July

Another time warp - July almost over. I know they say that as you get older - time goes more quickly but this is ridiculous! In my defense I have been pre-occupied with a project in July but that is really no excuse. We went to Hastings and walked through beautiful Hastings Country Park to Fairlight Glen where all the little grottos and waterfalls were Victorian attractions. On the way home we made it up Firle Beacon - Finn loved it!

Apart from that I have been walking and photographing as usual, picking raspberries, picnicking in the heather up at Bignor Park, tending my garden.

Picking samphire, swimming in the sea, walking around pagham harbour, watching the starlings and generally making the most of summer.

Missing

I can't believe I've missed over a whole month on here and I really don't know what I've been doing! We've just come back from South Devon and it was Finn's second holiday. He was a good boy and we spent the days walking along the beautiful River Dart, sketching and just sitting taking in the wonderful British countryside at my favourite time of year. 

beach clean community

I had a wonderful surprise the other day when I was contacted by 2minutebeachclean to say they were sending me a present. It was a lovely piece of jewellery made by the talented staceypumpkin who donated several necklaces made from driftwood and freshwater pearls. It's hard to put into words what pleasure this has given me - to be picked and to wear the necklace. I enjoy the beach cleaning and consider it to be something we should all do without thinking - the people behind 2minutebeachclean work continuously to put the message across in a lighthearted and fun way - even though the problem of plastic pollution and all the rubbish left on our beaches can be so upsetting. What an amazing community it is.

Pics of rubbish collected on Bognor beach, lost shoes at Bracklesham, me with my necklace, Finn enjoying the sea breeze and some of the weird finds I collect.

Blossom

I can feel Spring in the air - even though it is colder than it's been all Winter ... the end is in sight .. 

Finn update

What a wonderful dog Finn is becoming. He's really settled in to our life now and seems to be very happy in his new routine. He's very loving and obviously up for all the walking that is expected of him.

It was Gra's birthday last week so we spent the day out walking, beachcombing, collecting and photographing. Plus a bit of eating and drinking too - the perfect day. Below are pictures of paint on the bottom of boats.

East Head at Wittering was very stormy but beautiful. I did a #2minutebeachclean and in the picture of the sand you can see the tiny pieces of plastic littering the beach - all the black and white bits are plastic too. They can be found all along the sand dunes now and this shocks me every time I see it. I also collected some shells and seaweed to draw.

Beachcombing

Walking along the beach, collecting things is one of my pleasures. Even picking up rubbish on a #2minutebeachclean is enjoyable for me! Here is my collection from the last beachcombing walk at Pagham beach - the inspiration too behind my latest illustration.

Winter

I don't love winter but I'm glad to live in a country with definite seasons. In nature colours, plants and light change dramatically to give a totally different atmosphere which means there's always something new to see and to inspire me.

Here is my mood board inspiration for the last illustration - woodland collection.

Woodland collection

Inspired by looking at the forest floor on my walks and collecting everything I see (which is becoming a bit of a problem in my house!) I've now drawn everything and put it together in a kind of pattern. 

Forest floor

All the walking I do with Finn gives me so much inspiration. Here's my first illustration of the year - inspired by seeing leaves on the forest floor during a walk in the Rewell Wood. I usually do a black and white ink drawing in my book and then colour it and play around with the layout later. Oh the wonders of computers!
© nicky linzey 2016

2016

Happy 2016 - very late but better late than never, I'm hoping this will be a good year. We had lots of lovely walks over Christmas - I actually managed a beach clean on Christmas Day but the most important news of all is Finn's first anniversary. Unbelievable that he's been with us a year now. We had a little family party for him - it was important for my sister to be there as she found him for us. He was the centre of attention and loved all the fuss!

Time flies by ...

.... I cannot believe it's over 2 months since I've updated my blog. I upload everything to Instagram at the moment so if you click the link at the side, you can find me there. But here are some of the photos from my Autumn walks and things I've collected plus of course Finn doing what he does best!

weekend

Finn's first trip

We've been away to the West Country - walking the coastal paths - which is my favourite thing to do. This time we've had Finn with us - his first holiday (that we know of). I was unsure how he would behave as he's a very impetuous dog and can be hard to handle at times. I needn't have worried - he was a good boy. He became bored easily while Gra was searching for fossils and I was drawing but only disgraced himself once when he did a runner from our hotel room and was eventually stopped by a German guest with a very large suitcase! I think we wore him out in the end.

Busy

I've been busy with work lately so here's a pictorial update of what I've been up to.

I visited West Dean Gardens - it's so inspiring there - I must go more often with my sketchbook.

I've been doing housework - as you can see Finn is very settled - when I change the bed he always snuggles into the washing pile!

I had a birthday and a lovely long weekend of dinner in the Horseguard's Inn, a day walk at Firle Beacon, a picnic and visit to Goodwood Sculpture Park and an afternoon in Arundel to go around the art trail and have afternoon tea .... phew!!!!

olive trees

I've just finished my latest painting - inspired by olive trees in the garden with sunlight dappled through their branches.

Dizzy

I've always admired the artist Bridget Riley and been fascinated by her work but have only seen the odd painting in the Tate, so when I heard she had an exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill I had to go. We've been to the Pavilion before and it is a beautiful building which has some great exhibitions and events. Obviously I knew the paintings were optical art but I was totally unprepared for their effect on me - amazing, the colours are vibrant, painted to perfection (which is important as I love a perfectly flat colour!) but I couldn't look at them - the whole wall of painting moved - swam - jiggled - flowed and made me feel completely dizzy. It was as if I'd taken a hallucinogenic drug and things were moving that shouldn't be - I eventually found looking through one eye helped but I was disappointed and quite shocked that a flat painting could have such an effect - but then that is the point!
The other photos above show a few shots of Bexhill, a garden dedicated to beach clean finds and Normans Bay - one of the 1066 beaches.

Stamp

Yay - my illustration for 2minutebeachclean has been published in the great Uppercase magazine - issue 26! The brief was to design your ideal postage stamp and seeing as I am slightly obsessed with beach cleaning, I decided it was a good idea to highlight this cause.
Thanks for including my work Janine.

Happy Birthday Finn!

Today is Finn's 5th birthday - as far as we know - it was roughly worked out by Allsorts Dog Rescue when we got him. The picture on the left shows how he was in the dog pound in Ireland and the one on the right as he is now. It hasn't been easy to get him to this point as his behaviour has sometimes been pretty wild but he is calming down and Gra has worked wonders with him. 
It's lovely to see him enjoying his life and having adventures. He found a fox in the shed and was obsessed with that for over a week even though there was no more sign of it. He eats my blackcurrants and gooseberries off the bushes and traumatises the sparrows and pigeons in the garden. He's found his voice too - it took him about 4 months to bark - I'm sure the neighbours are delighted! He's very loving and funny too - a great companion - I'm glad he found us - Happy Birthday Finn!

Painting update

As I wrote earlier I've been planning a new painting and came up with several ideas but none of them seemed to be quite right. Then it occurred to me - there was too much going on (well I had a little input from Gra too!). So I simplified it a lot and this is the end result - I finished the painting last week. What do you think? 

Beaches

While walking Finn I cannot stop beach cleaning. Martin Dorey - the founder of 2minutebeachclean was on BBC2's Springwatch last week - he's doing an amazing job. I've discovered that each beach I clean has a different type of rubbish: Wittering was littered with lots of dog poo in bags - I can only think that after bagging it the dog's owners didn't want to carry it around with them so discarded it - even though there are many bins around. Pagham has lots of matted fabric caught up in the dried seaweed. I didn't realise what this was until I'd been clearing it for a few weeks - WET WIPES - disgusting. Apparently they are becoming a real problem as people are using them more and more. Then there's Bognor - clogged up with beer cans and takeaway rubbish - just left behind regardless of all the bins along the promenade.

I also cannot stop photographing boat bottoms! I love the layers of coloured peeling paint and the textures. I think they look like abstract paintings.