Dot to Dot, another Miniature Painting

I've started another miniature painting which I'm hoping to complete in time for an exhibition later in the year.

It's a Bald Eagle which I was lucky enough to photograph just outside the Rocky Mountain National Park while on holiday. I do plan to do a larger painting of it at some stage, as it sat still for quite some time while I snapped away with my camera. In fact it was far more patient than my two teenage sons.

It is acrylic on Polymin and will end up about 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

I'm using a 10/0 brush and working in dots rather than lines to try to get the detail.

Continuing Cat in Coloured Pencil and Acrylic

I've worked a little bit more on the cat but household tasks kept calling me today so not much progress has been made.
With the continual rain I seem to spend an awful lot of time drying paws or cleaning floors. The cleaning results from the muddy paws that make a dash to pass me when I'm already propping up a dog who has one foot in a towel. Why is it that my dogs can run and play on three legs if the need arises, but lift one leg to dry it and they either collapse, or lean so hard that both of us end up in a heap on the floor.
All except Rio that is, Rio doesn't like rain, even worse he doesn't like the ground to be wet when he needs to go out. The only way to encourage him is to go out first and convince him it doesn't hurt, this is a lengthy process. In fact you can add changing clothes and drying hair several times to my daily tasks . Yesterday it involved rounding up fish from flower beds but that is another story.

More Rough Collie

Not much progress because I've been working today, butI'm quite pleased with the likeness.

Rough Collie Painting

We had a real health scare with Clinton last week although he is completely recovered now. It made me realise that I drew him as a puppy but I hadn't done an adult portrait of him. I felt the need to paint him once we knew he was going to be alright.

I decided to use a photograph of him looking over the fence into the garden. I have already used one of Juno from this shoot to produce

'Wait For Me' Clinton is acrylic and coloured pencil on Arches HP watercolour paper.
It makes a change to be painting a dog again, it seemed strange to be painting long fur.

Clinton is lying under the drawing table, doing his best to add touches of fur into the wet paint.

Another Macro Cat

My series of macro cats has proved to be popular in print, so I have decided to add to them.This is acrylic and coloured pencil on Fabriano Hot Press Watercolour paper, approximately 9x7.

I use the coloured pencil first to put down some layers, then start adding acrylic to add depth and punch up certain areas. I then add more CP and more acrylic until I'm happy with the result. I use mostly Polychromos pencils with one or two Coloursoft as I find Prismacolours rather soft for using with the acrylic.

Society of Feline Artists 2008 Exhibition

'The Aristocrat'

Original sold by the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery

On Tuesday I travelled down to London to attend the Private View of the 2008 Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists. Still jet lagged I did wonder if this was a good idea but I had a fabulous time.

I first met up with Katherine Tyrrell of the Making a Mark blog for lunch and a good chat. Katherine is excellent at finding nice places for lunch so we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Katherine went into the Gallery slightly ahead of me, and imagine my delight when she came back to tell me 'Aristocrat' had the coveted red spot to mark it sold. I later found out that it had been one of the first paintings to be bought.

We got time to speak to some of the other SOFA members and I found them a really friendly set of people. (Denise if you read this I have been showing off your business cards and have ordered some of my own).

The exhibition continues until the 20/09 so if you like feline art and can travel to London then it is really worth a visit.

Links:-

Denise Laurent - The Painted Cat

The Llewellyn Alexander Gallery

The SOFA blog

Home Again to Exciting News

I'm now back from my American holiday although I think part of me remained on the plane, hopefully the jetlag will soon pass.

We travelled almost 4000 miles and I probably shot the same amount of photographs. I was lucky enough to get some lovely close up shots of various creatures and some spectacular early morning shots in Yellowstone. This one however sticks in my memory, "The one that got away"

I have also received some exciting news.

In early August I submitted a portfolio for consideration by the Selection Committee of the Society of Feline Artists, when I arrived home I found that I have been accepted as a full member. I consider this a huge honour as the standard of work produced is consistently high.

I don't think it's really sunk in that I can now add the letters S.O.F.A after my name.

Some other exciting news is that I have been approached the Snow Leopard Trust and I am going to be supporting them as part of their artist program, more details to follow.

The Arte y Pico Award

While on holiday I had the honour of having my blog awarded the Arte y Pico Award by Karen Hargett.

Karen is an artist working mainly in graphite or pastel, have a look at her blog to see some lovely work.

Thank you Karen.

As part of the ongoing process I would like to pass the award on to the following five artists, I get a great deal of pleasure reading their blogs on a regular basis.

Making a Mark by Katherine Tyrrell - for me simply the best all round source of art information on the net.

Tracy Hall - a brilliant watercolour artist.

Laura Hardy - beautiful coloured pencil portraits of animals.

Sheona Hamilton-Grant - animals in graphite, always a pleasure to see new work

Nicole Caulfield - stunning still life and portraits in coloured pencil

Just a note to explain the origin of the Art y Pico award and the "rules" for accepting:-

The Origin of The Arte y Pico Award and Rules are:
The Arte y Pico Award has arisen from the daily visits that are made to many blogs, by you, which nourish and enrich you with creativity. In them, you must see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. You want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain and enrich you day to day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few.
The Rules:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Show these rules and the paragraph (above) explaining the awards origination.

Thank you again Karen for nominating my blog.

Yellowstone Morning

I've had two wildlife firsts while staying in Yellowstone National Park. First we watched a Grizzly Bear feeding on a Bison carcase, then I saw a pair of Beavers building a dam. I got some photographs of the Bear but it was too dark for the Beavers.

Here is one of my early morning in Yellowstone photographs.

I'm now in Utah and finding the heat very tiring, I prefer the mountains and forests to the Canyonlands.

Rain, Snow and Extreme Heat

The flight to Denver was long but uneventful, and the first day in Denver was hot, sunny and enjoyable.

However we got up on the second day to rain, rain and more rain. As we drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park this turned to snow and visiability was almost zero so the Rangers suggested everyone went down the mountain as quickly as possible. On reaching Estes Park there was a flood watch in force so looking round was somewhat restricted.

South Dakota was hot so we visited Mount Rushmore early in the morning, it was fascinating to see it in real life so to speak.

We are now back in Wyoming in the scorching heat but at least I can take photographs of the wildlife.

This was the first wild animal that got its photograph taken, I've no doubt it will appear in a painting some time in the future.

Going on Holiday

I will be having a blogging break as I'm going on holiday tomorrow until the beginning of September.

We're visiting some of the National Parks in Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah. If technology works I'll try to post some photographs.

Otherwise I'll see you in September.

The 2008 Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists

Yesterday was the selection day for the Society of Feline Artists 2008 exhibition at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London.

I met up with my friend and fellow artist Katherine Tyrrell and we both had all our work accepted. I had a slight hiccup with one of my frames but Katherine has kindly sorted everything out for me.

I sent in three of the images earlier in the year and 'Aristocrat' was one of the images selected to feature in the 2008 Private View Invitation.

I will be going back to London on the 2nd of September to the Champagne Private View at the Gallery. It will only be 2 days after I'm due to fly back from America so I'm not sure how alert I'll be!

Kingfisher and Bilberries

I wanted some reference photographs of tree trunks with ivy growing up them. Whilst out tracking down suitable subjects I remembered that it was Bilberry season. In fact as I discovered I remembered a bit late. There was plenty of evidence of Bilberries having been there, but they were now obviously residing in someone else's freezer. I did find enough for a couple of pies after a lot of searching in places not designed to be searched.

I have also made progress with the Kingfisher, he has at least an undercoat all over now. I am enjoying the small paintings for a change, although I'm not sure my eyes have the same enthusiasm.

Kingfisher in Miniature

Staying small I've started another miniature painting, this time acrylic on polymin, 2 x 2.5 inches.
Polymin is sold by Polymers Plus and is described as the modern base for miniatures, a dimensionally stable, chemically resistant, translucent, surface treated plastic sheet. The colour I use is similar to ivory, but there is also Polymin White which is obviously white in colour.

Polymin is totally smooth and very nice to work on, I find it easy to correct mistakes although it does take me several layers to achieve rich colours.

Polymers plus supply a wide range of supports, brushes, frames and other accessories for painting Miniatures

Robin Finished

I've now finished my Robin, I'm reasonably happy with it.

There is a bit more all round so I am still thinking about the crop. I also want to adjust the tones on the bird, but I'll let it rest for a couple of days and then look at it with fresh eyes.

The biggest challenge was getting the acrylic to behave itself in such a small space. I found working with a tiny brush ( a 10/0) and applying the paint in tiny drops worked best, that way I could blend the colours quite easily. I did however use tiny lines to represent the feathers.

Going Small - Miniature Robin

I'm trying to get two or three miniature paintings together to submit to an exhibition later in the year.

I've had one or two false starts and realised in the process that my eyes are are not as good for close up work as they used to be. I have an optivisor, but when I put it on my dogs disown me, sure I must be up to no good. Today they were too hot to care, I just got one or two strange looks from Clinton when he popped his head out from under my drawing table.

Fingers crossed third time lucky. This Robin is from my own reference photograph, it is 3 x 2, acrylic on Arches HP Watercolour paper.

I might decide to crop a bit tighter when I can see the whole thing.

Tomorrow Roxie is at a show but I hope to be home in time to finish my monochrome cat as for once it is fairly close to home.

Most of the other dogs have dropped their coats and I can see Roxie looking at them enviously so I expect to be having a forced showing break soon.

Monochrome Cat with a Splash

I have abandoned everything else to complete another cat.
This is mainly coloured pencil with touches of acrylic on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper. It will be about 16 x 8 inches.
It has more colour than the ones I've done in French Grey, but I am sticking to the monochrome colour scheme.

There will be a surprise addition to the picture once the cat is finished.

Watch this space.

Snow Leopard continued.

It was a sad day today as we collected Saskas' ashes from the Vet's. They had been put in a very nice little casket but we are going to scatter them on the moor where she loved to run.

We plan on just taking Clinton with us when we do it as he was her special friend.

Once we've done it every time we take the dogs for a run on the moor we will feel she is close to us.

I've done a bit more work on the Snow Leopard including adding a dark background.

I also went out to take some photographs of flowers, foliage and walls today, dodging the rain showers which were torential. Here's one of a Foxgloves which I plan on drawing at some point.

National Exhibition of Wildlife Art -NEWA

Last night I attended the private viewing of the 2008 National Exhibition of Wildlife Art at Gordale Garden Centre on the Wirral.

Earlier in the week I had been delighted to find that 'The Hunter' had been selected by an independent panel of judges for inclusion in the exhibition, so I was once again looking forward to seeing my own work in such prestigious company.

'The Hunter'

As with last year the organisers of the exhibition are to be congratulated for the professional way everything runs. Once again handing in day ran like clockwork, it only took minutes for my work to be checked in, labelled and carried away. This is not as easy as it sounds with high volume of submissions expected each day.

There is plenty of parking at Gordale and there are plenty of signs directing people to the exhibition.

The exhibition itself is a delight to wander round, and the on line gallery means that anyone unable to visit can still view and purchase work.

As well as simply enjoying looking at the diverse work on show, I wanted to use the opportunity as a learning experience.
After an initial look round I went back to study some of the work in depth.
My first impressions were:-
There were an awful lot of Lions and Tigers, all well done and different, but I might work on a more unusual animal or bird for next year.
Birds were popular, from simple graphic designs to paintings including detailed habitat.
To catch the eye from across the room a picture had to either have an excellent and different design, or be strong colour wise. There is so much art of a consistently high standard that to stand out is a real achievement.

On more careful study of images that particularly appealed to me, I found they all had one thing in common, a really strong design. Those artists had obviously put a lot of thought into how best to present their chosen subject.

Some of the ones I liked were close crops of animals, in each case the crop had obviously been chosen to reveal some part of the personality of that particular species.

Although I liked a lot of the work I had two favourites:-

'Achromatic' by Darryn Eggleton

and

'Pheasant' by Wayne Westwood

If you get time have a look at the gallery even if you can't get to the exhibition in person.

Links

Home page for NEWA

Continuing the Snow Leopard

I started to draw the features of the Snow Leopard and realised that:-
1. I didn't like the right ear position
2. the eyes were crooked.

Therefore I used the ear from the next photograph as the Leopard had flicked it forward, and alsoadjusted the eyes. The grid lines made this an easy task, they also enabled me to see that the nose and mouth would line up correctly.

I then painted the eyes in acrylic and started working the fur using a mixture of coloured pencil and acrylic.

It is the scan that is crooked, not my lines!