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