A very pleasant lunch

At a country pub with an elderly friend of ours. I love days like this.

More photos from the weekend of art

Before the visitors arrived ...

Arlington Exhibition weekend

Had a really good and enjoyable weekend with Art at Arlington.  The Exhibition was well attended with 112 visitors on Saturday and 131 today, Sunday.   It was lovely to be able to do some painting at the same time

The set-up had tables filled with my paintings, plus some additional sketchbooks -
this photo was taken just after the door opened and I had started putting paint on paper

but the weekend wasn't about demo art,

it was about people getting to see the paintings I've created during this Spring/Summer

at various locations around the Arlington estate

So glad I went for it and set this up with the help of husband and 

William the lurcher.

All ready for the weekend Exhibition

....everything is packed and ready to set up

for

~ eeee I'm excited ~

Sketches whilst away...

Photographs make excellent memories,

but SO DO SKETCHES.

Needless to say I was busy drawing, sketching, painting

during our recent visit to Cornwall...

Here's a selection from my

Concertina sketchbook...

still plenty of pages to fill in this concertina sketchbook,

they will have to wait for another trip away at some time.

New Artwork on my Etsy shop

One of the very enjoyable things about going away for a short holiday, is that I get to DRAW, SKETCH AND PAINT....not only scenes of our holiday, but I also get some miniature art done, namely ACEO's (Artist Cards sized), they may be SMALL, but they are GREAT in their own way....

just click the image 

OR

Click here for the link to  my ETSY shop where

I have added these little treasures).

~

Visiting a former Mine in Cornwall...

Now belonging to the National Trust and includes a Visitors Centre, I'm talking about

EAST POOL MINE

Redruth Cornwall

(another link here from Wikipedia - East Pool Mine)

We weren't sure what this Trust venue would be like, we're used to visiting NT Gardens and Stately House, but sometimes you have to go for it and visit something completely different.

Diverse it's called isn't it?  

That was definitely this particular place, but enough chatter,

here's some photos...

In the Visitors Centre there were small working models of the mine shafts,

with explanations.... 

There was a very good film playing in another room, which told of the history of Cornish Mining.  I didn't record all of it, but thought you may like to see this bit....(sorry that the sound isn't too brilliant, but if you turn down your sound slightly that might possibly help...anyway, I'll leave you to work that out)



I messaged the Trust on their Facebook page to ask what the initials EPAL stood for.
Yes, I worked out the EP = East Pool, but the AL had me completely stuck...
they replied with this:

"Hi Ann, thanks for getting in touch.. EPAL stands for East Pool and Agar Limited.  In short there was a mine in what is now Morrisons carpark, called Wheal agar (owned by Agar Robartes a.k.a Lanhydrock family).  This was near to East Pool mine which is the prominent winding engine by Kwikfit.  Wheal Agars production was poor so they switched off the pumps which led to East Pools lower levels to be flooded (most shafts are connected).  So East Pool to save their rich mineral levels bought Wheal Agar for £4000 in 1897.  It was from this purchase that the name "East Pool and Agar" comes from.  The mine had a very productive and long life raising 92,000 tons of copper ore and later, 37,000 tons of tin ore.  In its early days the copper ore here was particularly rich, selling at twice the average price.  In 1913 the business became a limited company called East Pool & Agar Limited, known as EPAL.  In 1921 the shaft at East Pool and Agar collapsed, completely blocking access to the mine.  Another solution was needed.  This was the beginning of Taylors shaft and engine house which was built 250 meters away (down Trevithick Road).  This your best and one of the largest engine houses retained the name "East Pool and Agar Mine" and it is these initials that appear on the chimney which towers above East Pool Mine's remaining buildings today.  Hope that helps you.  If you want to know more why not try the link below: Many thanks: "

Wow! what a great reply...and here's the link they mentioned:

'WHAT'S UNDER YOUR FEET' (click link)


From the useful information they sent, they mentioned a couple of sites and here they are on Google Street View:

 the Stack is in the distance of this image, so we parked near it (the first image in this blogpost)

and the other site is just down the road, here:

~ An interesting and worthwhile visit ~

A spot of en plein air

Art at Arlington Court is one of my favourite occupations and yesterday I set off with my easel, paints, bag containing: brushes, extra paint, paper, spare paper, etc etc. you get the idea, I took it "just in case" - Oh and a hat (it was very sunny, not complaining as it was very welcome weather).   Then I only needed to find a nice little spot to settle myself for the afternoon, which I found under a huge tree.

Not bad aye.

and my view....

in case you wondered what the huge leafed plant is, it's a Gunnera, they love sitting by water, just like me.

It didn't really matter which way I turned, I still had a great view.

But at the end of the day, I had decided to sketch and paint the Lake,

so here are some pics I took of my progress during the afternoon.

I always do an initial sketch to get an idea of what the scene will look like on paper

(as it happens I deviated slightly from this view, but intend to go back and paint this angle another time)

A few visitors walked by and stopped to chat, which was nice.

In particular one little girl with her mother said how much she liked my painting,

and yet it was only the first wash!

  She also liked my sketchbook,

which being a concertina style,  absolutely fascinated the little girl.

You never know, I may have made an impression on her and she'll end up 

an Artist one day...now wouldn't that be great.

Having to wait for paint to dry meant I needed to complete and painting
in my home studio and with a matt/mount board it says to me I had a good day.

🎨🎨🎨