If you're day isn't surreal enough, try some Gentle Mystics

When does drawing naked people stop being awkward?

I'm on such a drawing high right now.
I think it's the endorphins released post-stress, because I do find life drawing really stressful.

I don't know if it's the presence of a tutor, the short pose times (about 15 minutes, which is short for me), that everyone else can see your work or that people are just really hard to draw... what ever the reason, I find it unbelievably stressful.

I very nearly screamed behind my easel several times.

But then the pose is over.
All you can do is step back and see what you've got.
And that's when the high kicks in.

I did these last night at the Candid Arts Trust drop is session, and it still feels pretty good the next morning.

Of course, sometimes when you step back you aren't greeted with perfection.
For instance, in real life our model's thighs meet his bum, but not in my drawing:

Oops.

Previously unseen summer highlights

 

Clockwise from top left:

1 - Table greetings at Claire's Birthday Garden Party

2 - Lakeside fire at Wilderness

3 - Mr. Styles at Leake Street, London

4 - Peony

5 - The banquet tent at Wilderness

You know what you can't beat? Your favourite boy in a blanket.

It's one of the finest things in the world.

City Gardening: 1st Harvest, Shetand Black

 

My tiny garden as produced it's first crop (well, apart from all the mint - the battle is ongoing)!

I dug up one of my containers of first early potatoes and received a small, but perfectly formed, harvest.

I'm particularly proud of the Shetland Black potatoes (the purple ones). They taste great (but I would think that, I'm so biased) but I wish they kept their colour a bit better when cooked - they turn quite gray. Boo.

Wild swimming and Yotam Ottolenghi at Wilderness

Last weekend we decamped to Wilderness, an amazing festival in Oxfordshire celebrating beautiful scenery, good food and outlandish performances.

We stuffed our faces with amazing food at Yotam Ottolengi's banquet.

We wandered in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside.

We swam in the lake and drank in the sunshine.

We soaked in wood-burning hot tubs and watched the sun go down.

We saw shooting stars and then attended a talk on Curiosity by Oxford Astro-Physics Department the next day.

 As you can imagine, going back to work on Tuesday was a bit of a shock to the system.

Wild swimming in the River Ray at Islip

Wild swimming is idyllic, but isn't something I get much opportunity to do in London, so when an opportunity comes along it's worth braving the mud and the misc squidgy stuff at the bottom and jump right in!

Not literally though, not until you know how deep it is.

That's just dangerous.

Speaking of danger, the Outdoors Swimming Society has a page on wild swimming safely that you ought to read if you're considering it.