Pumpkin patch watercolour sketch

Bid now for the @heartresearchuk #anonartproject

As many people that have been following my blog for more than a year or so will know, each year I support Heart Research UK’s charity art auction by donating some A5 watercolour paintings. This year’s auction is live now and bidding will close on Sunday 31st October.

I’ve always enjoyed participating in this event, from wondering what to submit right through to following the auction as it builds towards a climactic bidding frenzy! You can read about my reactions to the results of previous auctions in 2020, 2019 and 2018.

I feel incredibly proud and humble that, over the past three years, my donations to this wonderful cause have raised almost £1,200 – far more than I would ever be able to donate in purely financial terms.

Here are the works and the final bids from past auctions, shown in the order of most recent donations (3 in 2020, 7 in 2019 and 3 in 2018). I’m sharing these as a little reminisce – as I can remember painting all of these images – but also to show the variety of work and prices that each work has sold at.

For 2021, I’ve submitted four paintings which I’m sure the more eagle-eyed amongst you would be able to identify quite easily if you were minded to sift through the 450 plus works in the 2021 auction!

You can see all of the available works in this at the Heart Research UK Ebay Shop.

The auction runs until Sunday 31st October at around 8pm and I’ll be sure to share the results with you as soon as I’m able. Good luck to anyone that bids for anyone’s work in this auction, there’s a tremendous variety of work available and from some very well known contributors too; there are already a number of works that are into the thousands of pounds territory!

Pumpkin patch sketch

This time of year is always incredibly busy as it marks a hat-trick of significant events! Most importantly, my daughter’s birthday – she was ten this week – then there’s the half-term school holiday and, at the weekend, my daughter’s birthday party followed by the sugarfest that is Halloween! All of which I’m presenting as the case for the defence in my woeful lack of watercolour painting!

Here’s a quick sketch I did manage to do from the view from the edge of the field that we went to at the weekend to pick up our pumpkins.

I’m torn between doing a larger version of this, or a slightly different view from the same field. I think the background hills are too heavy in this sketch so no real sense of depth, but I quite like the light catching the tops of the pumpkins in the foreground and the texture of the bracken. While I deliberate what to do next – I’ll wish you all a happy Halloween and – who knows – maybe happy bidding too?