It's Wednesday and it's very early, well at the time of writing this it's before 8am which classifies the time as early for me, if you know me well you'll know I am not a fan of mornings!

So here's the up to date stats for the UK Cityscapes Project


There are 2 days, 12 hours and 10 minutes (at the time of writing) to go in the first phase which is the funding phase

I am £332 away from my funding target, that's only 13% or 3 business investors or 2 canvases + a book or 11 books or 1 complete collection of 69 prints + 2 books

I have been to 11 cities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland, Carlisle, Liverpool, Sterling, Dundee, Perth and York.

Favourite cities so far, Newcastle (obviously) and Liverpool

Least Favourite City, Dundee, mostly due to the people, although I'm sure there are truly lovely people in Dundee the ones I came across were not.

I'll keep todays blog fairly short and to the point, here's what I'd love you to do, if you haven't pre-ordered a book or got yourself a canvas, print or even got your name in the book then do it now before it's too late, if you back the project it means you are part of the project and you can say that you helped the creation of the UK Cityscapes project and book.

Also, people are voting for their least favourite city of the UK on my Facebook page, go and place your vote to send me to Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke on Trent, Sheffield or Bradford and that's where I'll be going next week.

and I couldn't leave you without posting an image so here's something lovely from City 2/69 - Liverpool and it's intricately weaved landscape from 400 ft above.

Uk Cityscapes - Edinburgh and Glasgow here we come....

It's a rainy misty murky Sunday morning and I'm just getting ready for todays first journey to Edinburgh, unlike my recent trip to Edinburgh a couple of months ago today I intend to get some great cityscapes from this amazing Scottish city.  One of my favourite cities in the whole world I've always felt when I heard the bagpipes as I ascended the slope from Waverley station that I was home, my heritage is Scottish, my father being born in Leith means I am probably more Scottish than I am Geordie.  Tales that my ancestry was from the clans Buchanan and Mcdonald only being eventually scuppered by the fact that I chose to marry a Charlton who's heritage was wholly from the border reivers who helped to keep the Scottish out of England and the English out of Scotland employed by whoever would pay the highest fee, no wonder I have so many inner demons.

This first week of the project proper, I feel like it is because my crowd funding efforts began on Tuesday, before that it was a jolly jaunt, a crazy idea, well now it's more jolly, more crazy and some days it feels a long way from being achievable.

I'm learning to have thick skin by not being frightened to approach corporate sponsors but I'm also learning that there might be a fair few negative answers before I find one who's willing to take the chance and support a crazy artist to follow her dreams and in the process celebrate all that is great about the UK.

I'm lucky that my daughters had split holidays from school as it's kind of handy to borrow them for train travel, thanks to our railcard it's cheaper to take a child than it is to travel alone!  I did think about bus travel but dear reader I need to finish this project before I am 103, bus travel isn't exactly speedy!

I've also found that my new best friends seems to be the last minute booking sites lastminute.com and laterooms.com, maybe I should approach them for some sponsorship, one thing I do know is that without them I wouldn't be staying in the Old Waverley Hotel for less than £50 tonight without them. One of the best hotels in Edinburgh with amazing views from many of the rooms which face out onto Princes street, sadly we're staying in an internal room with no windows but hey, i'll feel the views by osmosis.

Tomorrow in Glasgow we'll be staying at the Argyll Hotel in Glasgow, again it's around £50 a night including breakfast and don't get me wrong there are cheaper options but being an avid reader of Trip advisor I think it's safe to say that it's probably not safe to stay in many of them.

So here's just a couple of images from my last visit to beautiful Edinburgh and here's hoping that on this visit I achieve my goal and get some amazing cityscapes.

yes that's me, wind blown and messy, I do try to not look like that but generally do even half an hour after hair straighteners!

To support me on my quest you can crowd fund me or if you want to speak to me about sponsorship opportunities please email me