This year for Painting Padiham Plein air competition I decided to challenge myself to using pastels instead of doing a painting. I am pretty new to using pastels so knew it would be a bit of a risk but I like to give myself a challenge! I decided to do some practice in the run …
Continue reading Painting Padiham 2026 : practice and the finished work
A watercolour painting of beetles from a series of artworks capturing the artist’s recent trip to Florence
A look at the last 7 days of the mini collage a day challenge and what I learned from the experience of making art everyday day.
Thursday Art Club is holding an exhibition at Pendleton Village Hall on 2-3rd May 2026
A collection of recent life drawings in pastel and conte crayon by Rachel Crawshaw
A look inside the artist’s sketchbook exploring the symbolic interpretations of birds and vessels. Mixed media artwork featuring gel plate printing, collage, pastel and conte crayons.
Here is a quick catch up of my Mini Collage a day challenge. At the end of the week I seemed to be drawn to bright, warm colours such as reds, pinks and oranges, as well as imagery like fruit and flowers. At the beginning of the week I experimented further with using text in …
This February my family and I took a special trip to Florence, Italy to celebrate my husband and I's milestone birthday. One of the places I enjoyed visiting most during the holiday was the Museum of Natural History, La Specola. This painting is from a photograph I took of one of the museum collections of …
Continue reading Watercolour butterflies: memories from Florence
Here is the next installment of mini collages created in my 2x3 inch sketchbook. This challenge, so far, has been a great way to ensure that I show up to the page and create something everyday, even if I only have a few spare moments. It doesn't take long to fill a 2x3 inch page …
A collection of life drawings of model Sophie in conte crayon and charcoal on sugar paper. Gestural figurative drawings and portraits by artist Rachel Crawshaw from @mushroommoondesigns
Mushroom Moon Designs 