Top Dropper Day

Thanks to everyone who has been dropping their EC's on my blog this month. You are all wonderful.
My Top Droppers for January are:



Babette's Definitely Maybe! lovely blog about Babette's family and thoughts on life

Online Games great for news about games available to play online

Amy Lilley designs take a look at Amy's beautiful jewelery and wonderful photographs

Caught In The Stream poetry and fiction from the very fertile imagination

vanillaseven.com beautifully evocative photographs

Septagon Studios Inc News Blog love the header and layout in this publishing company's blog

Art By Paul Baines great articles on contemporary urban art.

Stroll Through Storyland wonderful one of a kind jewelry also interviews with etsy artisans

Gewgaw Writings short stories, poems and essays from a very creative mind

Anime Hunt great reviews of Anime (Japanese animation)

Thanks to you all for being my Top Droppers for January.

Win an original painting!!

This is the 30th post on my blog. To celebrate this, and to thank everyone who has left such wonderful comments about my work, I have decided to initiate a monthly competition for some lucky person to win one of my original paintings. In addition five other lucky people will win one of five signed limited edition prints of the painting.
The paintings will be produced specifically for this competition and the edition will be limited to 5.
This is a great opportunity to own an original artwork.
The watercolours will be painted and signed by myself (John Wright).
The size of the paintings will be 210 x 297 mm (8.3" x 11.7")
They will be unframed and unmounted.
The prints of the artwork will be printed on A4 paper and will have a small white border on all edges.
The prints will be unmounted and unframed.
In order to qualify, you must:


1. Subscribe to my email posts.
2. Comment on the posting that will announce the painting for the competition. This post will appear on the first day of the month, beginning on February 1st 2009.
3. Mention the above posting in one of your posts. The post does have to be only about my competition, but it should mention it with a link back to the competition post.
4. Comment on at least 5 other of my posts for that month.

Please Note:
One Entry per Person

The competition will run from the first of the month to the last day of the month.
The winner and runner-up prizes will be determined by a draw from all qualifying names and will be announced during the first week of the following month.
Erm... hope that's all clear.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any inquiries about the competition and Good Luck!!

Rooftops of Henrietta Street, Whitby

This watercolour looks down onto the red tiled rooftops of Henrietta Street in Whitby. The fisherman's cottages (well, holiday cottages now) are nestled close to the cliff on the east side of Whitby. After Henrietta Street, the path take you on along the cliff and then down towards the sea and the pier.

The Rooftops of Henrietta Street, Whitby

Watercolour on watercolour paper
8 1/4" x 11 3/4"

If you are interested in purchasing this watercolour, please take a look at my Etsy shop.

Royal Hotel, Whitby

First, a greeting to all my readers out there in the good old US of A. Hope you all had an absolutely fabulous Inauguration Day ( of whatever political persuasion you may be) and that you celebrated it with with appropriate amounts of good food and drink!!
This painting is another in my series of Whitby.

Royal Hotel, Whitby
Watercolour on watercolour paper
8 1/4" x 11 3/4"

It shows the Royal Hotel at Whitby on the cliff above the harbour. To the right of the hotel you can just make out the arch made from a pair of whale jaw bones (Whitby had been involved in whaling in the 18th and 19th centuries) and just a little further along, the statue of Captain James Cook. Cook began his training as a seaman in Whitby and his ship, the Endeavour, in which he made his great voyages of discovery, was built in Whitby.

Hallelujah!! I can post again.

After a week of tearing my hair out and just about going stark, staring mad, I am once again able to post my work. The problem has been computer viruses, spyware, malware and whatever else seems to infest this technological, mind-bending minefield - MY COMPUTER!!!! Apart dropping a few EC's and making the odd comment, I've not been able to do any internet dependant work.
Well, I seem to have it beat (for the moment) and the computer is now running at its previous (not actually that fast) speed.
To celebrate, I am posting one of my wife Maeve's colourful works.

Out of the desert
Mixed media on watercolour paper
8 1/4" x 11 3/4"

I think she got the idea after watching a television programme on Egypt.
If you are interested in purchasing this, it is available on ebay

The Lion and Snake, Lincoln (drawing)

I haven't blogged much recently as I've still been doing my "Christmas job" at a local Argos (catalogue) store. I did it for some much needed cash over the festive season. I finished today so I can get back to some serious drawing, painting and blogging.
I'm starting off with this drawing in my moleskine of the Lion and Snake pub in Lincoln, with the towers of Lincoln cathedral in the background


This is a preparatory drawing of the scene for a watercolour painting I'm going to do. I usually work from photographs I've taken and I find it useful to do a drawing first as I can sort out exactly what I'm going to include and leave out from the photo and also decide on the distribution of tonal values throughout the work. Also I just love to draw.

Whitby Houses

Walking up the hill from the small beach at Whitby, you suddenly come upon this view, over rooftops, houses scrambling up the cliff with the tower of St. Mary's church peeking out at the top.

Whitby Houses
Watercolour on watercolour paper

8 1/4" x 11 3/4"

New Year's Day 2009

I had my traditional New Year's Day breakfast, consisting of bacon , sausage, eggs, mushrooms and any other cholesterol boosting ingredients I could fit onto the plate. One of my cats, Buttercup, decide to to join me on the painting table, hoping for any bits of meat that might come her way. Oh well, how could I disappoint that cute face!! My wife photographed the scene, from which I made this sketch. The first one in my new Moleskine.

Hope you have all had a wonderfully relaxed start to the new Year.