Graeme Skinner

trying hard ;-)

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:52:53 +0000

I’ve been trying to get my hand/arm coordination back into working order; I’d say so far it is 50/50 there are periods where I don’t notice anything wrong, and others where my hand goes where it wants regardless of my brain shouting “go left”. Anyway, I picked a couple of images I took at Crawick Multiverse last week as references and started splashing paint around – both are A4, and after picking up the car from the garage this morning and receiving the bill in the form of a bound book with an index, glossary etc., they’re both for sale (£4000 each or both for £10000).

A Wee Break

Graeme Skinner — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:12:41 +0000

We had a few days away in Scotland, wandering, hiding, drinking, sleeping, and taking a photo or two…

Our first stop was on the way to our accommodation, just outside Dumfries is the stone circle Twelve Apostles –

On the first day we visited Crawick Multiverse, which continued the standing stone theme really

We also stopped by one of those Andy Goldsworthy eggs, I believe it’s an advertisement for his building work, or maybe a sample of his brickwork abilities.

The next day we popped round to Threave House, we didn’t go into the actual house but wandered around the gardens…

Leaving Threave we had a drive around Loch Ken, my Loch Barbie joke wasn’t all that funny after I repeated it on a five minute rotation, we did stumble across a nice waterfall which called for some long exposure photographs

We popped into the churchyard in Kirkland as there were commonwealth war graves marked there, not that this the photo of those graves…

Our obligatory trip to see the sea ended up with a drive to Ayr –

Finally a trip to Kirroughtree for a wander under, erm, trees –

Yes, we did get lost in the woods, I blame the markers that we were supposed follow were a bit random at times.

Long Meg in Glass

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 15:29:47 +0000

Thought I’d try a bit more stained glass, this time I picked Long Meg, the base was made from a piece of Ash.

Adamant

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 14:26:40 +0000

First stained glass piece for me in quite some time, this one was made to celebrate my parents diamond wedding anniversary. It took a few attempts, well, my hand sometimes didn’t work the way I expected it to and glass is fragile The wood was some that I managed to salvage from an old church pew my parents bought when a local church was closing a decade or two ago that had finally given up.

Prototyping…

Graeme Skinner — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 13:29:20 +0000

I had an idea for a lamp quite some time ago now, bought the electrical bits, then paused for far too long; so the other day I decided to give the lamp idea a go. It has different rivers cut down each face to let out a ‘river of light’ Luckily with it being a prototype it doesn’t really matter that the light itself goes off at a slight angle – no idea why as it’s a new light fitting and new tube. The rivers I picked are ones we both know – so there’s the Eden, the Ellen, the Trent, and the Doubs. The wood used is Cherry for the sides, and Elm for the base, final size is 37cm high, 15cm wide.

References

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:08:45 +0000

Wandering this morning I added more images to my reference library, one day I’ll pick one of them and actually paint something

Quick wander

Graeme Skinner — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 15:10:40 +0000

We went for a quick wander on Caldbeck Common yesterday, just to blow away some cobwebs. The light was rather nice, and I took this as a reference for a future painting

Alt Maen

Graeme Skinner — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:13:20 +0000

Panoramic photo of The Old Man of Coniston, we were going to wander up to the top but I’d forgotten my crampons.

Whist I like it in colour I’m tempted just to keep the black and white version…

In contrast

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 14:28:04 +0000

We went out to Watchtree Nature Reserve yesterday for a change of scene, whilst I enjoyed looking at the moss covered trees, the contrast to the modern(ish) mechanical of the crashed jet engine was quite interesting.

For future reference

Graeme Skinner — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:39:50 +0000

There can never be too many reference photographs can there These are for when my hand decides it’s ready to use a paint brush again, when we went for a wander at Long Meg the grass looked like it would work in an illustration or two.