Garden Furniture

Last week I bought a set of garden furniture (a small table and 3 chairs) from ebay. I painted them with an outdoor wood paint which I also want to use to paint the fence in the garden so they will all match.

This is how I hope my fence will look:

Alissa White-Gluz

This is the next portrait in my series of female singers. She is Alissa White-Gluz from the band The Agonist. Her vocal abilities are amazing - she is a great singer and is also unusual in that she does heavy metal vocals as well.

Sharon den Adel

This is the second of my series of paintings of female singer who I admire. Sharon den Adel is the singer of the band Within Temptation. Link

Religion For Atheists

Last week I visited Edinburgh for 5 days (a video and photos will follow, hopefully soon!) and while I was there I read this book.
It was a good book to read on a solitary and introspective trip away and I connected with it quite deeply. It confirmed a lot of ideas which I have had in the back of my mind but wasn't quite able to describe. The main premise of the book is that you don't have to be religious in order to enjoy the ways in which religion benefits the lives of the religious.
It's hard to summarise but if you have a look here you can watch a TED talk in which he summarises a few of the ideas he discusses in the book.

Link

Big fan of Alain De Botton!

Orchids at Kew Gardens

Yesterday I took the day off to take my mum to the orchid exhibition ant Kew gardens. It was amazing to see so many different orchids all together.

As well as the flowers I enjoy Kew for the architecture and the landscaping. I've always liked the look of a mix of organic and man made.

Black Forest Gateau

Quite a few years ago I had an idea for a drawing project where I would draw people themed around food or flavours. I did a few drawings back then but wasn't particularly pleased with any of them. This week I decided to try again. This is the first picture: Black Forest Gateau.
Key words I came up with when planning this were: rich, traditional, heavy, winter.

Axolotl Slippers

Some might say I'm axolotl obsessed... and they wouldn't be totally wrong!
I got some white furry slippers for Christmas and today I made them into axolotls!