#128 Fruit Salad

Here is the four component parts of our fruit salad from this evening from left; a piece of melon, a raspberry, a blueberry and a strawberry. Watercolour and pencil 29cm x 19cm click here to bid.

#127 Zip

I am natural born hoarder, I have so many things that 'will come in useful one day' to be honest some have, some haven't and some probably will and some won't.So, when I heard about and saw the huge bag of different coloured zips collected over the years by Chris's Mum (one of the year three students at work) I was strangely drawn to them especially this one due its chunky nature and bright red colouration! Thinking about it, if I didnt hoard/collect things most of the paintings on this blog would not have happened. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x14cm click here to bid.

#126 Romano Pepper

This is not the one we ate but it is the one in the fridge! Watercolour and Pencil 29cm x 19cm click here to bid.

#125 Succulent Cuttings

We had a classic quiet sunday today slow start this morning took some stuff to the tip, wandered round a garden centre, where we bought this little succulent plant (the labels in the shed so I cant tell you what variety it is). Then, this afternoon after a cheese and ham sandwich I planted up two hanging baskets with a combination of this and another succulent we have been growing on from a tiny pinch that we er...ummm.. aquired a long time ago from another garden centre, with sempervivum (house leeks) poked in the side of the coir basket. I am now a little bit too full (from a gorgeous roast beef dinner) and looking forward to an evening which may or may not involve a large glass of something. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x14cm click here to bid.

#124 The Change from my Pocket

I thought I would paint whatever was in my pocket today, turned out it was only 15 pence, I even dug around to find some pocket fluff but to no avail! I am going to start the bidding on this painting at 15 pence and I will see if I can double my money! watercolour on pencil click here to bid.

#123 A letter

I recieved this letter today, I haven't opened it yet but I am pretty sure its an invoice! It might be the most mundane thing I have painted, in a good way of course, I like the mundane. Watercolour and Pencil29cm x19cm click here to bid.

Can I also take this opportunity to invite you all to join my facebook page and enter a little competition I am holding to win the painting of a pack of post-it notes with a reminder to 'paint' written on the top one from day #110. All to have to do is become a fan! Click here or the facebook badge on the right hand side to take you to the page.

#122 Pear

Nice pear. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#121 Half a Boiled Egg

Two reasons for painting this tonight; Reason one is I delivered a Tempera Painting Workshop this morning to our lovely year one Fine Art Painting and Drawing students, during which I performed the best yolk from white seperation ever! I also made a chicken salad for tea this evening with a boiled egg pride of place on top. So my day has been largely about eggs in one way or another. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x14cm click here to bid.

#120 My Phone and New Nephew!

A big fat welcome to my new Nephew Zachary! Born this morning, 7 lb 5oz, Congratulations all round! I reckon its always good to have a 'Z' in your name too! So, I though it would be a great idea to paint the picture my sister, Kate, sent me of him today on my phone and the only way to do that (and stick to the ..ahem .. strict rules of Dan young, Daily) is to paint the phone as well!

Watercolour on pencil 29cm x 19cm click here to bid on the other paintings from the last week, but for the first time in 486 days I'm not selling this one!

#119 Ring of Cardboard

I cant remember what this was packaging for but I have kept it for over a year thinking it would make a good painting, for some reason it never seemed right, until now..no reason it just caught my eye! Watercolour and pencil 14cm x9cm click here to bid.

#118 Chocolate Digestive

I got a pack of Chocolate digestives as a sunday treat today even though we hadnt finished the pack of rich tea biscuits from earlier in the week..such luxury! Watercolour and pencil 19cm x14cm click here to bid.

#117 Staples

More canvas stretching and lots of these used today! Watercolour and pencil 14cm x 9cm click here to bid.

#116 My Staple Gun

I have had this staple gun ever since I was at Norwich Art School in the early 1990's and it has become one of my most trustworthy tools over the years. I have probably used it to stretch all the canvas's I have painted on since then. Today I have stretched 14 canvas's using it so, thought it was about time I painted it. Watercolour and pencil 29cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#115 White Grape Hyacinth Flower

This little flower fell off its parent plant on his way back from the garden centre...its fate has been recorded here for your viewing pleasure. Watercolour and Pencil 14cm x 9cm click here to bid.

#114 A Stretcher Bar and two Canvas Keys

A large part of today has been spent happily knocking together a whole load of stretcher bars. Here, I have painted one of my 8 inch lengths and two canvas keys. I am not at work today but I'll do a free bit of paint advice for you all now - Canvas keys are the little doohickeys you use to knock out the corners of the stretcher when the canvas becaomes a little slack during painting. There thats it, no questions, class dismissed... Watercolour and pencil 29cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#113 Night Light

I bring you fire! Watercolour and pencil 14cm x 9cm click here to bid.

#112 Crystal Sample

Following our trip to Debbie folks, we came back with some unexpected goodies. This is part of Debbies volcanic rock collection, I liked the heart of red this one had and the amazing natural yet geometric form, Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#111 Bunch of Crocus

Normally on Mothers Day you give flowers 'to' your Mum, well today we went to visit Debbies Mum (and Dad) in Robin Hood country and 'took' these from her garden. Their crocus's are all out and look lovely so I picked this little bunch to paint when we got home which I have just done! Happy Mothers Day (especially my Mum x) Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#110 Post-it Notes

I thought I would continue the office theme, and paint this reminder for myself to paint! I also have an interesting fact about post-it note glue; The weak yet sticky enough glue was invented by accident by the people trying make superglue, I can imagine a sad group of scientists testing their new recipe for superglue and realising the only thing it would stick was thin yellow squares of paper. Then feeling like abject failures they stack up all the paper they had been sticking to stuff and realising they had made the post-it note. They then ran around their science lab shouting eureka! Thats how I think it happened anyway...watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm

You can win this painting by joining my Facebook page here, or through the facebook page box on the right of your screen.Bby joining the page you will be entering a draw which will take place on April 11th which is also day #500 of this whole daily painting adventure!

#109 Paperclip

I found this just outside my office as I left this evening it seemed such a jolly little paperclip I felt I had to paint it. I like the way it is an object usually associated to work yet its brightly coloured plastic coating seemed to me to be a great link to the working week to the weekend! 14cm x 9cm click here to bid.

#108 Jigsaw Piece

I found this on the floor of the studio I am pretty sure it is from the same jigsaw I painted last year here. I would do a similar competition but it seems a bit pointless now! Watercolour and pencil 14cm x 9cm click here to bid.

#107 Wooden Building Block

I like it when objects have a story attached to them this wooden building block has such a story. However it isn't my story and so I dont feel able to tell it, needless to say it involves mice, a childrens playgroup and lots of soapy water. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#106 Peach Stone

We had some lovely peaches this evening, this was a stone from one of them. Watercolour and pencil 14cm x 9cm click here to bid.

#105 Recorder Mouthpiece

This is one of those objects that I picked up loads of times last years to paint with oil paint but it never seemed right..I think I mostly decided it was too big. But, I realised this evening, it is ideal for these watercolours. I would like to see it in oil one day though... who knows. watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#104 Chorizo

Just before we made chorizo and lentil soup I grabbed the chorizo sausage to paint.. great shape and great colour..its like a big savoury candy stick! Watercolour and pencil 29cm x19cm click here to bid.

#103 Tuft of Sheeps wool

We went for a lovely walk along the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail this morning which is where I picked up this tuft of sheeps wool, I must have wanted to really challenge myself today. Both with the four and a half mile walk and an object so ephemeral its hardly there! Good walk though and punctuated by some great sculpture, favourites include Echo by Annie Cattrell , Place by Magdalena Jetelova and Raw by Neville Gabie. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

#102 Satsuma Peel

Not much to say about this one, its not satsuma day or anything like that, I just saw it on the table..it was the only thing on the table so, it had sort of set itself up for me. I scooped it up and I was on my way. Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

Oh.. and you may have noticed the rather intrusive looking box on the right heralding my new facebook page if you are on facebook become a fan, I did! I hope to use it to update on the daily paintings as well as other stuff I might do (painting related mostly)!

#101 Paperback copy of Casino Royale

Today is world book day . I love named days and I love books....I have not painted a book yet during this project (they were mostly too big for last years paintings). This is my Dads copy of 'Casino Royale' by Ian Fleming the first in the Bond series. He passed the whole set down to me (literally because they were in the loft) when I was about 12 or 13, it was just at the start of the summer holidays and I think I spent pretty much all summer reading them all one after the other. Kept me out of mischief and set me up for a life in the secret service.....Anyway...I chose this one (not just because of the pretty lady on the front) because it was the first one I read, I was careful to order them all before I began my Bond marathon, and there is a pretty lady on the cover. It also has a horrible torture scene in it (also visible on the cover) involving Bond, a whicker chair with the seat cut out and a carpet beater, *ouch*.

Watercolour and pencil 29cm x19cm click here to bid.

#100 Champagne cork

Wow! day #100 already, it doesn't seem like that long ago I painted this very cork last year for the first day #100. It even has a C for century printed on it...neat! Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.

If, on this momentous day, you would like to find out a little bit more about the project please have a look at my other blog where you can read an interview I did for Miss Powell's year 11 students at Bicester Community College click here to have a read.

#99 Metronome

Well it is day 99 of year two of 'Dan Young, Daily' and I was going to paint a chocolate flake (and recreate last years joke I made on day #99) but I was too late getting to the corner shop and they were closed. bah! So, to lament my lack of 'timing' I chose to paint our metronome instead and set it to 99 beats per minute. I hasten to add I didn't manage to paint it while it was going, or I might have lost my mind. Waterolour and pencil 29cm x 19cm click here to bid.

#98 Toilet Roll

I have definitely used this every day of this project, hey I didn't say it was all going to be lovely cakes and pretty flowers! Watercolour and pencil 19cm x 14cm click here to bid.