Could you support learning within the u3a movement?

Mud, mud, glorious mud - but no hippopotamus. Inspired by all the days playing hockey on a really muddy field in my youth.

Watercolour of a pig in the mud.

Woodland clay path waterclour

This is a painting of a frozen, very muddy field of cavolo Nero cabbages, near a Nature Reserve in Aughton, Lancashire. Christ Church is in the background. It was in Winter, during a Lockdown, early in the morning and the cabbages looked magnificently brave, sturdy and beautiful, which inspired me to paint them! (Acrylics on paper)

Gel plate monotype using acrylic paint. A silt filled estuary inlet transformed by sunlight reflecting a bright blue sky onto the mud. Based on my own photo taken at the Bristol Channel.

A wet afternoon flying a 🪁 kite on the muddy estuary.

My watercolour painting shows muddy beach at Praia Formosa in Madeira at sunset

I saw this broken branch whilst on a woodland walk. It was lying in mud and leaves and I liked the shapes and colours. I painted it in watercolour, inks and gouache .

This man seemed to be skilfully manoeuvring his way on to muddy land, it seemed to me, when I painted this from a picture I saw. I used water-mixable oils.

My entry for the 'Mud' theme is a Pen and Watercolour Pencil sketch of a Warthog in a muddy field. I know that he may not look very happy, but I'm sure that deep down, he's really looking forward to a cooling mud bath.

I was inspired by the subject being mud, I wondered what you would paint with mud as the subject but then thought of muddy riverbanks and that is why I painted the picture. Also trying to get back into using watercolours so it was good practice.

I have been inspired by 'Another Place' by Anthony Gormley which is an installation of 100 cast iron life-size figures. It was sited in the mud in 2005. The setting is Crosby Beach looking towards Merseyside, Liverpool. I have used water colour and chalk pastel.

One of the first things I think about when I think of mud is pigs wallowing in it. They look so happy and content while doing so. I've chosen to practice painting with watercolours this time (on paper).