109-3266 – Calamansi

A colleague of my wife gave her a huge bag of calamansi (apparently they are rejects from his farm). I spent the evening squeezing the juice out of the same amount as shown in this bowl. We are freezing the juice in ice cube trays. I am going to turn the remaining lot into marmalade. Calamansi are a small citrus fruit that is native to the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. It look like a small lime and has a slightly sweet and sour taste. Apparently its a hybrid fruit – a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin orange.

Tue-28-Oct-2025

107-3227 – Golden fruits

When I sketched this I had missed a couple of days sketching – and to get back into the habit I decided to sketch my go-to subject (fruit) and the simplest one I could find (a pomelo) that was given to us. For a change I used no ink in this, sticking to watercolour and watercolour pencils (though I used a Posca pen on the label).

Thu-4-Sep-2025

107-3221 – It’s green not blue

I drew this on the Last day of August – my month was focussed on work and a trip to Iraq. I was being a bit of a couch potato on the weekend I drew this, as usual sketching what was in font of me (alongside a copy of “Vincent by Himself”, which was bought for me in 1987, which shows how long I have had an interest in art). Vincent used a lot of cobalt green (I think) in his paintings so I used a cobalt green Faber-Castell pencil to start this (and add some lines in the background)…it was given to me by my daughter as a joke, after our debate about the colour of an upside down building in Brighton (see sketch No.104-3126).

Sun-31-Aug-2025

107-3193 – What is on the coffee table

My habit is to just sketch what is in front of me, so here is what happened to be on our coffee table one evening. I read this series of books (the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini) years ago but my wife has been enjoying them recently. Paolini started writing the first book in the series (Eragon), when he was 15!

Thu-31-Jul-2025