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... well, I use them for painting or coffee - you can see the metamorphosis of this picture in my Facebook page.

My job is to describe my world interestingly, and to do that, I need lots of tools both in training and materials, according to what I'm working on, .

if you're interested; I've started a Facebook page to show how I start my work and my thinking, it's at:
https://www.facebook.com/charlymurraypainter/

The last tram stop before the airport.
It's interesting to see out the window in trains, buses and in this case, trams, the no-mans-land (of course it isn't when you're there, but it seems to be through the glass).

An approaching snow storm.

I found these small daffodils obviously picked by a child and thrown away. They transmitted light so much they lit up the air in my basement studio.
I put them in an 18th century tea bowl I bought from the best shop in Edinburgh: Duncan & Reid - everything's drawable.

Javier and I went exploring again and found a road winding from Garvald up the Lammermuir hills down to St Agnes Loch.
There was whin burning on the hills and there were Canada geese honking loudly down on the water but nobody around, and the water and the air were still.

I went to see the reservoir behind Bonally several times during the winter; I kept ruining my watercolours by being too cold and stiff to operate!

Javier and I went exploring the back roads on a cold changeable February day; we could see the weather coming. And I could see the Eildons purple and floating still in the winter sunlight.

I did this commission of a black plum for a lovely client to go with two other pictures he'd kindly bought from me.
This was the most satisfying; Brought all my knowledge from The Arts Student League of New York (where I spent last April) to it.

It's astonishing how next April is a couple of months away ...

I'm doing a lot more watercolours and it's stumbling, I get a nice flow then it's too cold and I can't bear to go out, so I lose the thread.

It's lucky to eat twelve grapes with each strike of the bells at midnight on New Year's Eve in Spain, at least ...


I would - but I'm asheamed to say I'll be asleep by midnight ...

There's a Spanish custom that says you've got to eat twelve grapes on New Years Eve just as the bongs sound.
I forget what it's for -
I'll tell you when I've painted the twelve ...

Would you like to come to the Open Studios at Coburg House?
I'm not showing but Javier Ternero is if you like interesting and beautiful photos and many more painters, potters, jewellers etc- and many fairy lights ...

It's open from 6-9 this Friday 1 December 2017
and on Saturday and Sunday 2 and 3 from 11 - 5.

I have to nerve myself each winter to go out for two freezing hours to get material every week or more, it was easy doing the drawing for this - it was a balmy 14 degrees in September.

The Royal Glasgow Institute has accepted two of my paintings and sent me this to share:

The Private View is on

Saturday 11 November
12 noon to 4.45pm
Mitchell Library
Granville Street
Glasgow G3 7DN

It was really lovely to see you all at Coburg House.

They're all colours of Autumn, Victoria Plums.

Autumn is here
There's an apple tree growing with its toes in the river; I've been watching it for six years, and this year there's a bumper harvest of red apples - but are they crab apples or not?

This watercolour was in a lane on my last day in Mallorca with no sound except the beating of the sun and a kitten crying in thee hedge.
He had a stripey coat and a funny face - and a broken leg.

I got him to come out out with a tin cap of water, carried him up to the local farm and don't know what happened to him after that.

The first time I went up the winding path from the hospital, it was snowing. There was the castle looking pink and grey and the black bones of the trees through the white snow-mist. But there were dogs, crows, robins and people braving the weather under the shelter of the castle.
The castle is like the hospital near it: a place of refuge in bad times and where people hope to regain mental hope and bodily balance. I went up there, looking for a place to make my imagination run. We all need a view or a window or picture to let our imagination out.

A commission by The Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.

This was one of the cyanotypes I showed at the Art and Design Library which was wonderful to show at - mainly because of the light and the friendly and helpful staff.

I picked the flower and thought it was elegant and delicate; the petals were stiff and translucent and very yellow, like they'd soaked in the sun.

I've been going up to Craigmillar since last Autumn gathering drawings and watercolours and mono prints.
Every time I go up I wonder who must have seen the 360 degree views and decided to make a castle there first.