Hello there! Hope you’re doing well. How’s your week been? If you’re in the UK, did you do anything special over the bank holiday weekend?
We went on an adventure in the Lake District for 3 nights with friends from our church. During our time there, we hiked up a hill which overlooks Keswick, which of course made us feel like we were characters in LOTR (who would you be?). I also thought a lot about the Romantic poets, the Sublime and how movements like these impact our culture even nowadays. We had great food (is there anything better than spaghetti Bol after a hike? … a baked potato with coronation chicken comes closely 2nd and I’m delighted to report that we had both over the course of the weekend). I carved out some time to slip away and sketch solo on the hill next to our weekend dwelling and created the first prompt for our on-the-go sketchbook challenge at the end of the month. This was the same spot as I shared last May (as seen in Travel Sketchbooks: Lake District Special), except this year the same field had cows in it, not sheep, which made me a little less confident about venturing up to the bench so for 2026’s sketches, I stayed closer to the fence! I also got to visit one of my favourite bookshops in Keswick, while the boys went to their favourite sweetie shop with Mike. Priorities.
We came back Monday feeling both thankful and exhausted and put the wash on (we had 3 loads). The rest of the week I’ve been a busy bee in the studio, creating little bundles of paper treats for my Portugal retreat guests (can’t believe that’s next week). Tonight I’ll be preparing my sketchbook and materials with the club at 7pm BST (still spaces available here if you see this on time and would like to join). Having watched this mini series on Lisbon, I have a good idea of some of the colours I’d like to pack.
Today I’m sharing with you 2 Timelapse videos, the one above is step 1. The one just below here is step 2. You can tell the change in light as the sun was setting. And below is also some of the materials I used.
Materials Used in Today’s Spread
Opera Rose watercolour for the vignette bases
A variety of Caran D’Ache Neocolor 2 pastels
Holbein’s D801 Misty Blue gouache
ShinHanArt’s 107 Hydrangea blue gouache
A variety of Prismacolor and Derwent Inktense pencils
A Micron pen for journaling and drawing the wild garlic
Highlights of the Week
a splendid hike up Latrigg, a 368m hill near Keswick with friends, delightfully warm with a refreshing breeze and WOW, the views from the top were astonishing
enjoying spaghetti Bol with lots of cheddar after that hike
finding an old alphabet book with lots and lots of cool typography at the 2nd hand book shop at 4 Station Street, Keswick
getting 3 washes of clothes dried outside in one day (Tuesday, straight after our weekend in the Lakes) - this was quite the achievement
tidying and dusting my studio - so very grateful for this space and I especially love the way the sun shines into it in the mornings
picking the garden violets and having them on display in said studio
friends sending me pics of them standing on front of my Bright Hope collection which continues to be on show in Edinburgh - please send me your pics if you also visit, it fills my heart with joy
having our windows open in the mornings and hearing the birds at dawn, both in the Lakes and back home and noticing the different songs
seeing so many folk getting ready for our club’s on-the-go sketchbook challenge at the end of May and eagerly anticipating our evening together as we collectively prep our sketchbooks for our outdoor adventures tonight
I’d love to know what your highlights have been. Let me know in the comments below or in the club chat.
Some more springtime posts for you to enjoy!
The gazette has ALL the club news, dates, fun YouTube links to enjoy, poetry and you may find the exact inspo you’ve been waiting for! ❤️
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on 25 Ways to Celebrate the Arrival of Spring in which I share a picnic recipe from Rukmini Iyer’s recipe book as well as many more creative ideas to enjoy this season.
If you missed it, this is a travel vlog from my recent time in London. I’ve included a sketchbook tour of all the sketches and visual journaling I did there. Grab a coffee, this video is over 25mins long and is free for all of you!
PS: thanks for celebrating my dusted and tidied studio with me this week! I was very touched by how encouraging everyone is. Thank you! ❤️
As always, thanks for reading! If you’re new around here, welcome! These visual journals exist because of paid subscribers. This post may be truncated in some emails so best to enjoy it on the app or website.
🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club!
🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark!
See you soon!
Helen xx
