North West Bird Watching Festival

I took time out from painting today to visit the North West Bird Watching Festival at Martin Mere.

The Reserve opened early this weekend and I was there by just after 9.00am. The weather was freezing, around -2 degrees, but lovely and sunny. I took lots of photographs of the frost edging everything in white. I also took lots of swans, geese and ducks with stunning reflections. My favourite photograph for today however is this little Goldcrest. I had to wait quite a long time to get this shot by which time my hands were so cold I had difficulty operating the camera.

After taking the photograph I had to go inside for reviving coffee and a browse around all the goodies on sale.
I took out a subscription to Birds Illustrated which I've been meaning to do for quite a long time. It is a subscription only magazine and has articles of bird art/artists in every issue. I got 4 free copies with my subscription, so I'm going to go and get another coffee and settle down for a long read.

Red Deer in Mixed Media

I want some examples of British wildlife for my portfolio so I pulled this Red Deer Stag from the WIP file.

I didn't get much done as I'm in the middle of a large pastel commission, but I did paint the sky.

This is an old Stag that I photographed in Scotland last New Years Day. His whole attitude was one of patient endurance. I wonder if he made it through the winter.

Watercolour Cat

I can't show any of the commissions I'm working on until after Christmas as they are all surprises for the owners.

I have however done a little bit more work on my watercolour cat.

Snow Leopard Finished

I worked on this all day yesterday and got him finished. Hopefully he will be auctioned on behalf of the Snow Leopard Trust, more details in a couple of days.

I know the paw is slightly foreshortened, but I didn't want to change it, as it gave the effect I was looking for. These magnificent animals have such huge paws, an adaptation for their natural habitat.

Now back to my Christmas commissions.

The Supreme Cat Show Experience

We had to get up at 4.00am to be sure of arriving at the NEC in time to set up. Only the younger dogs bothered moving at that time in the morning and even they only went out briefly before going back to sleep.
The only possible benefit I could find in leaving my warm bed at such an hour, was the almost traffic free M1.

Sales were almost non existent in the morning so I wandered about taking photographs. Thank you to all the owners who got their cats out of their pens for me to get up close and personal with.
I did meet a lovely lady who lives close to my home and has invited me to go and photograph all her cats in their own surroundings. I will be arranging that visit over the next couple of weeks and can't wait for the chance to add some different breeds to my portfolio.
Around lunch time the sales started and I ended up taking more than last year. Card sales were down but print sales were definitely up.
I think my new display stand helped as customers could pick the prints up for a closer look.
I had a new range of smaller, less expensive prints available but it was the larger ones that sold.

The highlight of the day came when the owner of the cat I'm in the middle of painting recognised it was her cat immediately, so did several family members and friends, including a little boy. This wasn't a commission, I had just been allowed to use the photograph. However the owner liked the painting so much she is going to buy it when finished.

I had been wondering if I should book a stand next year, but after having a fabulous afternoon, all being well in 2009 I will be back.
Now back to the Snow Leopard, I've got an extension to the deadline until this afternoon!

Snow Leopard at the Supreme Cat Show

Well only this one, at least I hope so.

In order to meet my deadline I'm going to take this to the Supreme Cat Show which is being held at the NEC tomorrow. I can work on him in between running my stand and walking round to look at all the fabulous felines who will be on show.

It will be a very early start as I need to be there for round about 7.00am to set up my stand, so I will not get a lot more done today. I'm going to have a dress rehersal later as I have bought a new display stand and had a new sign printed.

Snow Leopard in Coloured Pencil

I realised that I was not going to finish the large Snow Leopard painting in time for the weekend, which is my deadline. I've started another one which is smaller and on blue colourfix which I find slightly faster to work on.

It will be about 14 x 12 depending how much of his body I draw.

Demonstrating for the UKCPS at Art Materials Live

I spent Thursday and Saturday helping the UKCPS with their stand at the Art Materials Live show which is held at the NEC. I was demonstrating the use of coloured pencils on various surfaces.
I was joined by several other demonstrators all working with coloured pencil but producing very different effects. I have to mention both Peter Woof and Suzy Herbert as I spent more time with them , I absolutely loved the pieces they were working on.
I think the demonstrating role was far easier than running the workshop, the members there worked non stop helping people have a go using coloured pencils. Hopefully those people will go on to become members of the UKCPS and create art using coloured pencils.
Once again I lost count of the number of people who were astonished at the effects you can achieve with a "crayon"
A special mention for Rachel who I never saw stop throughout the whole time I was there, and she was attending for the whole four days.
Hello to all the people who stopped to talk to me, I really enjoyed meeting you all.
Thursday was a major disaster for me as my husband managed to spill a full cup of coffee over the commission I was working on. Not only did the pristine white background suffer, so did my legs, feet and bag. I'd spent around 10 hours on the work up to the coffee incident so I was ever so slightly upset. However my husband was so sorry that he bought me the entire set of Luminance pencils so I recovered a little after that.

I thought that on the whole there were slightly less people visiting than last year which some of the traders agreed with. However they felt that individuals were spending more per head than last year so didn't think takings would be down.
I hope to be helping again next year as I really enjoy it.

Hitting or Missing Deadlines

Next year I want to make sure that I meet all my deadlines, or make a conscious decision not to enter exhibitions/competitions. Although I'm reasonably well organized I did end up missing one or two things I'd wanted to try.

So I've bought an academic planner that started in September and runs all through 2009. I've entered all the dates that I already know. I've split them into deadlines for sending images for catalogues and absolute final deadlines. I've also entered closing dates for dog shows if I know them. It's amazing how many dates are already filled. Now I just need to remember where I've put the planner.

I need to finish my Snow Leopard so I got it out of my portfolio and painted a background in acrylic. This is quite large for me around 24 x 20 on heavyweight Arches Hot Press paper.

The cat on pastelbord is half finished probably to the point I want to leave it for working on at the NEC.

Maine Coon Cat on Pastelbord

I've had to put everything to one side to try to paint a couple of new breeds for the Supreme.

This is the first, a Maine Coon cat who is an Imperial Grand Premier. I met him walking round a show in his harness looking down his nose at the other cats as he strolled by their pens.


He is a stunning cat and I hope I can do him justice.

I wanted to use pastelbord so that I can take it to the NEC next week. Last year people seemed interested in using coloured pencil on board.

The background is done in neocolor and needs a little more work to smooth it out.

Size 12 x 16 and I'm using the sand coloured Ampersand Pastelbord.

More Watercolour Cat

I've been carrying on with my watercolour cat, more layers to do but I can see where I'm going now.
I'm also trying to do a couple more cat breeds to offer as prints at the Supreme Cat Show, time is running out though.
I will be at the NEC on the 13th and 15th demonstrating for the UK Coloured Pencil Society and then back there on the 22nd for the Supreme. If you are visiting either event come and say hello.

Coloured Pencil cat and Birds

I've decided to try to exhibit more often next year and a couple of places I'm looking at would require more bird art.

So yesterday we went to Martin Mere which is about an hours drive from us. It is run by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and is a fantastic place to visit. At this time of year it provides a roost for thousands of geese and swans. Yesterday there were around 10,000 Pink Footed Geese arriving to roost from early afternoon.

I got some nice photographs of various species of ducks, geese and swans with beautiful reflections as the sun was quite bright.

We also watched several stoats darting about in the grass, but they were far too fast for my photography skills.

At home I am lucky enough to have quite a few different species visit my feeders. This afternoon however was exceptional. I was trying to get some shots of a flock of Goldfinch which visit every day when I spotted a Goldcrest on the waterfall right in front of the window. As it flew away my husband spotted a Treecreeper on one of the Silver Birch Trees. Five minutes after that flew away we got a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the nuts.

I've seen a handful of Goldcrests in the garden over the 20 years we've lived here but it was only the third time I've seen a Treecreeper actually in the garden. The Woodpecker used to be a regular visitor but I hadn't seen it for a couple of years.

The next time I'm at home all day I'm going to set my camera up on the tripod which will help with the poor light later in the day.

Moving from birds to cats. This is the study I did for the watercolour cat I'm painting, 2.5 x 3.5, coloured pencil on Arches Hot Press.

Click here to bid.

Cat in Watercolour

This is actually the second attempt, the first is in the reject file.

I changed my way of working to lay down some fur strokes then cover with a wash of a warm grey, add some more darks and then do another wash.

I am using acrylic artists ink for the black because I can then soften it with coloured pencil.

I reserved the paper with white pencil, I used a wax based pencil as it will be easier to remove when I want to reveal the paper, there will be a lot of finger crossing at that stage. Of course it would have been easier to use masking fluid but mine is several years old and looked like it could have got out the bottle itself.

I have done about 3 layers up to now, there is more cat but I wanted to see if i could make it work before I got too ambitious.

I do think watercolour is easier to work with in small areas as it doesn't dry as quickly, but it remains to be seen which I will end up using for larger works.

Watercolour fruit and Dog Shows

I was working away for a couple of days last week so didn't get any time for art.

Yesterday we were showing Roxie and Juno at Midland Counties Championship Show.
It was a beautiful morning, so even though the show was inside I took lots of photographs of them in the sun.

They are both are in the middle of growing their new coats.

Virtual Sketch for October

I have been wanting to try watercolour paint for my miniatures and also try my hand at some botanical art. Imagine my delight when I saw the wonderful photograph posted for the October Virtual Sketch Date.

I tried one pear in watercolour, turned another one round and finished it in graphite. I can see plenty of things that need refining, but I will be using watercolour again. In fact I've started a watercolour cat, more of that in the next post.

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.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - Part 4

I've added several more layers to the top stripe and am happy that it now looks to have quite a lot of depth. I've left the bottom purely coloured pencil so hopefully you can see the difference. I've also started adding layers of acrylic to his head, the top part is finished as I don't think I will improve it by adding any more paint. I do find it difficult sometimes to know when to stop before I create mud.
At this stage he does look quite flat so I'll do some work on giving him some shape next.

Mixed Media Cat on Pastelbord

I put the pastels away again, I don't seem to enjoy them at the moment even though I used to use them almost 100% of the time.

I went back to my coloured pencil, neocolor and acrylic on pastelbord.

The cat is the same Norwegian Forest, owned by our friends John and Caroline Tipper.

The size is the same 7 x 5, the background is neocolor with coloured pencil on top, then brushed in using a hard stencil brush.

When is Lilac known as Lavender?

When it is a coat colour in a cat.

In order to accurately portray the coat colours in the various breeds of cats I want to paint I have been looking at how colour is inherited. I studied genetics as part of my degree in Zoology so can understand the theory. So far so good with colour, but then I moved on to the inheritance of coat patterns, at that point my brain gave up for the day.

My main problem came when I realised that the same genetic colour can have different names depending on both the breed of cat and the breed association.

So lilac can become lavender, tortoiseshell and white can become calico, black can be ebony etc.

When I then started thinking about spotted, tipped, pointed etc, not to mention ticked, mitted and agouiti I decided much more research will be needed.

The one thing I do know is that all cats inherit some form of the tabby gene so perhaps I should stick to tabbies, now would that be mackerel or classic.

I will continue to share my findings as I go along.

Just for a change I dug my pastels out today.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - Part 3

I haven't done very much over the last couple of days, but hopefully enough for you to see the difference between the area where I've added acrylic and the area of pure coloured pencil.
I have added a wash of raw umber over the two darker stripes. Then I've painted fur in a dirty white (I don't clean my brush after adding the raw umber) on the lighter stripe and a mix of raw umber and paynes grey on the darker. The bottom of both stripes is pure CP. I've also added some washes of acrylic to the head.

I add the acrylic to give more depth and more punch, the washes add the depth and the individual strokes the punch. I then repeat using alternate layers of coloured pencil and acrylic until I'm happy with the result.

I have received confirmation that I have been allocated space at the Supreme Cat Show so for the next few weeks I am aiming to paint a few more breeds. I just have to find the cats to photograph now! Amazingly they don't tend to pose for me when I'm walking the dogs.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - Part 2

I'm including a photo of my drafting table so you can see how I work.I usually have the image showing on my laptop which I place at the top left but I was using it for something else this morning.

At the right you can just see my home made Mahl Stick which I rest my hand on to stop the acid from my hand spoiling my acid free paper. Basically it's a piece of foam wrapped around each end of a piece of garden cane.

I always have my Gray Scale and Value Finder close, even if I'm using colour.

Also at the right is a scrap of Arches paper which I use throughout to test colours, fur patterns etc.

I've drawn my Squirrel on the same paper as the graphite version, Arches Hot Press and I will use my drawing rather than the photograph to check values.

This first image is all coloured pencil, finding values and fur direction and laying down a base.

Here I'm starting adding acrylic to the head but the rest is pure coloured pencil.

On the last one I'm working in both acrylic and coloured pencil, going backwards and forwards until I achieve the depth I want.

Later I'll post a close up of the fur.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - The Drawing

I've chosen a Ground Squirrel to demonstrate how I use mixed media.

I took the photograph half way up Pikes Peak in Colorado, there were several Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks running around the car park. This one kept popping out of his burrow then darting back inside.

Stage 1 is the graphite drawing, approximately 7 x 8 on Arches Hot Press. I'm using the drawing to work out any problems, both with the detail and with the lighting.

Hopefully I will finish the drawing tomorrow and start on the painting. I'll include more steps to show how I work.

Brushes for Miniature Painting

Due to several requests I'm preparing a small demo to show how I combine acrylic and coloured pencil. I'll post it sometime over the next few days.


The other request I've had is to show what my small brushes look like. So I've taken a photograph of my favourites together with the painting. I've also included a 1 Cent to show the scale (similar in size to a UK 1pence)
From the left are a 7/0, 5/0, 2/0 and 2 Round, then a 1 rigger, followed by a 0 Filbert. I use the rigger if I want a long stroke because the small brushes obviously hold very little paint, and the filbert on the background.
I can't find my 10/0 despite extensive searching so I'll have to order another. I think the fairies have taken it, it will be about the right size for them to use.
A good supplier of all things for miniature paintings is Polymers Plus

Gouache or Acrylic?

I've decided that acrylic is not giving me the results I'm looking for when painting Miniatures. I am struggling with the speed at which it dries and am also finding the colours look a little bit bright.

Because I'm using tiny brushes with tiny amounts of paint it is dry almost as soon as it hits the surface. This has been causing me growing frustration, so I decided to start again.

I decided to use gouache because it will work if I want to add coloured pencil. I also changed the polymin for Arches Hot Press paper.

So far I am finding this much easier, of course I might have changed my mind by tomorrow.

Supreme Cat Show

Like countless other people I have taken a huge financial hit over the last few months with a nosedive over the last two days. I have not found it easy to snap out of my gloom this time and that has carried through into my artwork. Yesterday I found fault with everything I was doing, so decided the wisest move was to do something different before I ripped everything up.

I caught up on some paperwork which included sending off my application to have a stand at this years GCCF Supreme Cat Show.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself last year meeting all those beautiful cats, so I'm looking forward to this year.

The show is held on the 22/11/2008 at the NEC and if you like cats well worth a visit.

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