A tour of my 'colouring-in' desk

💌 Brian Wildsmith exhibition + Lucky Dip Winner!

The Woodcutter. Drawn with my favourite fountain pen (by Good Blue) and coloured with watercolours, oil pastels and Derwent Intense pencils.

Dear Powells,

It’s been a week of mostly snow, followed by ice. Then there was more snow, which meant more ice. I’ve consequently spent a lot of time scowling at the sky from my studio window. Snow is delightful… on a Sunday. I don’t have to be anywhere on a Sunday. It’s not delightful Monday to Saturday. That’s usually when I need to go somewhere, the supermarket for example, to do a big shop. Snow made doing that ten times harder than it usually is, so we have been eating Christmas leftovers for the last five days and I have rationed the porridge. Our last dinner consisted of 3 sprouts, a dollop of cranberry sauce, a stuffing balls, a parsnip (shared), a few curled slices of Serrano ham and half a Terry’s chocolate orange.

Thankfully on Saturday, just before the snow came, I did leave the house. I had a wonderfully inspiring day when I managed to catch the end of a Brian Wildsmith exhibition and WOW. Just, wow! Seeing his work up close was something very special. His mastery of colour and textures left me almost speechless. Even Stefan* was impressed. We also had the pleasure of meeting Brian’s son, Simon and we all had a good old chinwag in the empty gallery before it closed. After seeing Brain’s work—so full of life and colour—I dug out my ridiculously expensive Sennelier oil pastels, paints and tubs of crayons, (all unused since 2023) and repurposed my bureau. It is now a dedicated ‘colouring-in’ desk. Here’s what’s on it:

My ‘colouring-in’ desk as it currently is.

I have been spending time here each morning, experimenting with textures, mark making and colour combinations. If it weren’t for the crushing guilt I feel for spending time playing rather than tackling my hectic work / client schedule I would feel liberated! My favourite discoveries so far are that: watercolour over oil pastels produces a fabulous texture and that, contrary to my previous limiting belief, my ink line doesn’t look out of place when used with other mediums.

In other news, it is less than a month until Marty Moose (my debut children’s book) publishes. I can’t believe it’s come around so quickly. If I wasn’t so busy preparing for it, alongside sketching out the second book in the series, I would need to have a lie down. Instead, I can only find time to hyperventilate at my desk.

I plan to tell you more about it in my next letter (the book, not the hyperventilating).

Powell x

*Stefan is my husband and he has high standards when it comes to art, less so when it comes to wives.

🍀 I am delighted to announce my Lucky Dip winner is… LUCY COGGLE!

Lucy, I will be in touch directly about sending you goodies. 😊