Wolf Finished, Snow Leopard Started

The wolf is finished apart from a few tweaks.
I've started a Snow Leopard which I am going to donate to the Snow Leopard Trust when it's finished.

http://www.snowleopard.org/partners/artists

I am using the same Colourfix paper in Blue Haze and the same technique of mixing acrylic and coloured pencils.

Wolf Continued

I'm almost there with the wolf. His bottom jaw needs to be altered at the left side (his right) and I need to finish his fur.

The squirrels are back so the dogs have resumed their hobby of squirrel watching, unfortunately they've forgotten that it's a quiet hobby. The first one to catch sight of a squirrel barks to tell the second , who then barks to tell the third and so on. The squirrels don't worry at all, in fact I'm waiting for them to start barking back.

The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculpters and Gravers Exhibition

Yesterday I attended the Private View of The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculpters and Gravers 2008 annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.

Following an awful train journey I met up with Katherine Tyrrell and Tracy Hall at the Mall Galleries to look round the exhibition.

Katherine has written a comprehensive post on the Exhibition on her Making a Mark blog and Tracy was awarded the Gold Memorial Bowl which is the most prestigious prize offered, so you can see I was in good company.

I am a huge fan of Tracy's work and it was lovely to see it in real life.

The standard of work exhibited was uniformly high, I was amazed at the detail some of the artists had achieved.

The Private View was crowded and the red dots marking sales were springing up all over. Miniature Art is obviously very popular.

Katherine then took us to the National Dining Rooms were we enjoyed a delicious three course lunch.

Returning to the Mall Galleries we attended the presentation of awards.

I liked a great deal of the work exhibited, but apart from Tracy's, the set of work that made the most impression on me was painted by Rosalind Pierson RMS HS[Co-founder] MAA

Her tiny watercolour landscapes are absolutely exquisite.

I came away from the exhibition inspired and determined to carry on painting miniatures.

Read Katherine's blog for more information, photographs and details of all the award winners.

I have continued with the wolf although the light was poor today to get an accurate photograph.

Mixed Media Wolf- part 3

I've continued to work on my wolf this week, adding more acrylic layers and more coloured pencil.

I'm still reasonably happy with him although I can see things I wish I'd done differently.

Wolf - continued

It has rained and rained and rained today. The ponds are overflowing and the fish are probably swimming round the flowerbeds, unfortunately it's now too dark to see.

I have stayed inside and carried on with my wolf.

Wolf in acrylic and coloured pencil

I have a couple of things that I need to do this month, one is finish my snow leopard the other is paint a wolf. I will finish my ground squirrel, hopefully over the weekend.


I've made a start on a portrait of a wolf, it is my usual mixed media technique in acrylic and coloured pencil, approximately 16 x 12 on blue colourfix paper.
I think I might have drawn the nose a bit too straight, I'll alter it when I get more fur in if necessary.

Happy New Year

I would like to wish all my readers a very happy and peaceful 2008, a little late but I've just returned from spending a few days in Scotland.

I managed to take some wonderful photographs of four male European wolves which live at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie.

I might not paint this one, I can't imagine him making a popular print.

I do intend to paint a scene with several wolves later in the year and as preparation I've started a small study in watercolour pencils.

I'm going to try to produce at least one small work a week and at least 18 larger pieces over the year so at least I've made a start.

I'm going to continue my art material series over the next couple of days before I return to the dreaded 'day job' on Monday.