This is my rough sketch of Goathland Railway Station, used amongst other things, for the model for Hogsmeade Station on the Hogwartes Express, says he, knowing virtually nothing about Harry Potter
I moved the composition out on both sides from the original photograph. I managed to find some more material on the Internet, not much, but the little I found was helpful. On one side there is a siding used for what looks like, Pullman coaches. I have the colour at least, which seems to be mostly cream with green
On the left hand side, I was able to complete what looked like a railway shed. It was more or less what I guessed it should be, but it was good to have it confirmed.
Now comes the tedious part, as you have heard me say before, of transferring the sketch onto watercolour paper, as a line drawing, hopefully improving the accuracy as I go. Some little while before I get round to that I expect
Some news about exhibitions. I finished the show at the Guildford Institute and sold one painting on the very last day. It was the one called “Bikes and Canals in Amsterdam” which I was pleased about, as this was rather a different subject for me. One painting is not remarkable, I know, but the Institute is not a busy place like a hospital, for instance, but I like showing there as it enjoys local prestige, and gets you talked about.
A couple of days ago, I was approached by the theatre in Leatherhead, which is a town about twenty miles from where I live. They are opening an art gallery for local artists, and wondered if I would support them, which I am doing. I am taking a small section of wall space as a trial, and will be showing there from 1st to 14th May
It should be an interesting experiment. I haven’t tried the Leatherhead area before. The theatre also draws from the town of Dorking, and the surrounding villages, so I remain cautiously optomistic, as always. The gallery organiser supports the exhibition with local publicity as well as social media. Some of this activity is directed towards private galleries in the area, and again not a segment of the market that I have approached before.
So will make an interesting punt. We shall see
offtoafineart 
Finally started getting email notifications again. The sketch looks pretty good. Hopefully it’ll turn out well.
“…gets you talked about.” – that line made me smirk. Do you really care for these stuff Monsieur? I don’t think so. Do you?
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“that line made me smile” not smirk
To smirk is to smile in an unpleasant way, as though you are mocking someone, as though you know something that they don’t know. Smug, conceited and self-satisfied. You could easily offend someone. I know you intended no offence because I know you, but someone else could easily get upset.
Being talked about in this sense, is a good thing, as word of mouth publicity is very powerful, and my reputation has been enhanced by it. Maybe I get criticism as well, but someone once said there is no such thing as bad publicity
I am sure you don’t mind me pointing out the difference between smile and smirk, as there is an elephant trap here best avoided
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Of course Monsieur. Be confident that there’s no problem at all.
I first learned this word, ‘smirk’, from the Harry Potter books. After my matriculation exams, I watched the 1st movie, liked it, collected the 1st book from a friend and read it. I noticed that I didn’t know meaning of a lot of words, so I bought my own copy, sat down with a dictionary, looked up and wrote down meanings of every single new word in the margin. It took me a whole week and worked from early in the morning to late night. I used three different dictionaries because Google wasn’t available then.
Smirk was usually used to refer to a smile by a negative character (Draco and Snape) and in a teasing way. I was planning to tease you just a bit, but not in rude or negative way. I know you are not commercial. You have supported many charity and you paint because you love it. Fame and money are just its logical outcome, as it happens with you.
Smile, grin, laugh, smirk, snigger, simper, guffaw – so many words but such different meanings. When you have time, please explain a bit more about them. Sometimes, dictionaries aren’t enough and I might make mistakes again.
Thank you Monsieur.
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all good words with different meanings, not be confused and I will provide some examples to make clear
I am happy to do that Farzana as these differences are important
I know little of Harry Potter, but certainly the villain of a piece would smirk, knowing that misfortune is to befall the hero, even though he does not know it yet. I will come back
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And yes Monsieur, there are three more words: chuckle, smile meekly and bare someone’s teeth. I know the meanings of all three, at least the dictionary ones, but I would like to know more about the contexts.
I think I could have used chuckle in stead of smirk.
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chuckle would have been much better. We talk about having “a quiet chuckle” when amused by something we have read
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Also, to remembered another word from HP: chortle. Harry’s Uncle Vernon would chortle.
When you find time, Monsieur, give a context to as many of them as it would be possible for you.
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Similar to chuckle, we chortle to ourselves when amused by something we have read perhaps. Maybe a little longer than a chuckle
This is something we do to ourselves otherwise we would look strange
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