Amur Leopard - Mixed Media

'Vantage Point - Amur Leopard'

16.5 x 11.5 inches

This is the first piece of completed artwork for 2013, an Amur Leopard in mixed media. It is mainly watercolour with some of the details added in coloured pencil on Arches hot pressed watercolour paper.

The leopard on my reference photograph was lying on a shelf so I substituted a rock from another of my reference photographs.

Photographic Reference of 2013 Week 2

I've been suffering from flu so didn't really have anything to post last weekend as I stayed in and felt sorry for myself.

This week the snow was the major event and as my car doesn't manage snow very well it remained on the drive all week and I

 

walked to the office a couple of times.

I can walk virtually all the way through country lanes which were very pretty but really icy.

 

A pied wagtail visits the garden every now and then and it became a daily visitor last week arriving mid morning and staying around for an hour or two.

This afternoon we went for a drive to see if there were any red kites about. I was lucky enough to spot one sat in a tree so I took lots of photographs and then caught it just as it flew away.

At one point we had seven of them flying above the car.

Photographic Record of 2013

 

I want to keep a photograph record of 2013, updating every weekend.

The first photograph is Clinton in Scotland. He forgot his arthritis when he saw the snow. He doesn't look bad for his age, he's 11 in March.

We had a day of sunshine and showers at the beginning of the year, the second photograph is one of many rainbows that appeared that day.

The third photograph is the lane I walk down most days. I took the photograph this morning and intend to take the same view several times over the year so that I can record the changes.

New Year New Aims for 2013

Moon over Carrbridge, Scotland 31/12/12

I hope you all have a happy, peaceful and successful 2013.

I've had some time to reflect on the old year and look forward to 2013 over the last few days, especially when taking the dogs for their last outing of the day. When in Scotland we take them into a long valley well away from any habitation or lights so that on clear nights the moon and stars make a spectacular display. While they wandered about on New Years Eve I thought about my aims for 2013.

Having had a quick look back to my aims for 2012 I didn't achieve most of them. There were various real life reasons for missing some but I have to admit that a good deal of apathy also crept in and I spent a lot of time thinking rather than doing. So I'm going to move some of them to become this years aims and some I'll drop for now.

Entering Competitions/Exhibitions

 I'm taking the pressure off this one, if I have something suitable I'll enter, if not then I'm not going to rush to produce work that might be less than my best.

Continue to develop the tuition side of my business by:-
Adding to my 'Coloured Pencil Technique' guides, the next ones available will be wolf, snow leopard and tiger, although I'm not sure which will be first. If possible I intend to make these available as ebooks for people to view on their computers, iPads etc.

I almost have the snow leopard ready to print so I'm going to make producing guides my main tuition aim.
In the second half of the year I will look at giving individual tuition either online or in a classroom situation.

Make my blog more interesting by widening the topics discussed.I am aware that my blog has become a place for me to share new artwork. That's fine and was one of my aims but as I've mainly drawn cats for the last few years I feel it's got predictable and boring.
I want to add interest by:-

• Highlighting competitions and news which might be of interest to animal/wildlife artists.
• Creating mini tutorials on different subjects.
• Posting more about the dogs and my travels in search of reference material.
• Talking more about why I choose to photograph or paint a particular animal or bird.
• Having a guest artist spot every month (if possible).
• Discussing more marketing topics which might be useful to others.
• Not posting if I've nothing useful to say, I see this as important to maintain interest both for me and my readers

Those were my aims for 2012 and will become my aims for 2013 as I feel I didn't move forward with any of them except not posting if I've nothing useful to say which meant I posted much less in 2012.

Apart from the above I want to produce a body of new work and spend more time on marketing.

Slow Progress on the Foxes

Progress has been slow on the foxes because I've spent time doing things with the family over the Christmas period.
I'm going to Scotland for a few days from tomorrow but I intend to finish all the pieces I've started before the end of January. Expect to see the bear, foxes, pheasants and a leopard all of which are in varying stages of completion.

I'm deciding what my artistic aims are for 2013 so that will be my first post of the new year.

Red Fox - Part 2

I'm working slowly on the foxes in between starting my Christmas preparations. I alternate working on the leaves with the fox to hopefully keep both fresh. My aim is to finish the top left corner next.
I am impressed with how well the pastelmat is taking both paint and pastel.

I decorated my tree on Friday much to the delight of Cody who likes to investigate the bottom branches. We are always careful to put anything edible on the top branches, it's amazing how far collie necks can stretch to investigate chocolate.

Red Fox and Cub on Pastelmat

I don't think I've ever neglected my blog for so long but I'm back now. I had a few days away demonstrating and then caught a horrible cold which developed into a never ending cough. I'm still coughing but starting to feel slightly more human.

I'm giving the bear a rest due to having 'bear overload' painting for four long days while demonstrating at the NEC.

This is mixed media on brown pastelmat, probably one of the largest paintings I've attempted as it will end up about 28 x 20 inches.
The fox cub is a mixture of soft pastels and pastel pencils and the leaves are watercolour. I'll add the detail to the leaves in pastel later.

Solo Exhibition at Sunnyhurst Wood Visitor Centre

My solo exhibition is now on until the 03/02/2013 at the Sunnyhurst Wood visitor Centre.

The  old Keepers cottage pictured above now serves as a visitor centre and art gallery. If you want to visit the winter opening hours are Thursday to Sunday 12.00 to 3.30pm and the exhibition is on the second floor.
Link : Sunnyhurst wood Visitor Centre

My paintings were hung by two exceedingly pleasant and helpful men, thank you Pete and Keith for all your efforts.

The light was not very good when I went to take some photographs but the above show two ends of the large room.
I took a mix of original work and limited edition prints, 33 pieces in all covering a wide price range. Each piece has been numbered and a list prepared with the title, medium and price so that viewers have something to refer to when walking round.

I had several photographs taken for the local paper so my one hope is that I don't look as awful as I do on my passport photograph. Watch this space I'll post the article when it appears.

Thank you also to Margery for making us welcome and keeping the Nuthatches supplied with nuts so that I could take some nice photographs.

I'm considering taking some pencils and going to do some drawing there one Sunday afternoon.

Second Attempt at a Grizzly Bear

The first grizzly bear had an accident with my airbrush which decided to splutter and spit blobs of paint out. The result was a bear that looked like he had a bad case of measles.
I decided to paint him this time using acrylic on prepared mdf board.
I haven't got very far yet as I've had a busy few weeks.
My youngest son graduates tomorrow and the ceremony is in London at the Royal Albert Hall.
My solo exhibition starts on the 3rd of November and I have to deliver everything to the venue next Monday and then I'm demonstrating at Art Materials Live at the NEC for four days in November.
Plus I have to fit in some blood tests and an opticians visit in the next couple of weeks. However once I get to the middle of November I have nothing else planned for the rest of the year so should return to posting on a more regular basis.

Do You Feel More Emotionally Attached to a Painting if You have Seen the Animal in its Environment?

 

.I'm currently working on a grizzly bear, mixed media on Arches hot press watercolour paper

Whilst on holiday in Canada I was lucky enough to see grizzly bears in the wild although not close enough to get good photographs. However a couple of days after seeing them in the wild we visited the British Columbia wildlife park. They had two young grizzly bears, a brother and sister who had arrived at the park when their mother was killed. I took a lot of photographs of the bears interacting and doing their own thing. Eventually I want to paint a large picture of them play fighting.
As I've never painted a bear I decided to start with one bear in a straight forward pose.
I was drawn to this photo both because of the bears expression and the lighting.
I'm not planning on adding a background although I might airbrush some blurry foliage later.

As I'm working on the bear I can remember the details of the day, but more than that I can picture the wild grizzlies in their natural environment. I certainly have a stronger emotional attachment to this painting than some of my others.
I had already seen grizzlies in captivity and one distant view of a wild bear on previous trips to Canada but this was the first time I'd watched one for quite a long time behaving in a totally natural manner which to a greater or lesser extent captive animals don't.
It's leading me to think that not only should I use my own reference material but in order to give something of myself to the work perhaps I should only draw or paint animals or birds I have seen in the wild.
That doesn't mean I'll never paint another tiger or snow leopard but perhaps less often than in the past.

Same Wolf, Different Technique

I painted this wolf recently using a mixed media technique and although it turned out reasonably well it wasn't quite what I'd wanted to achieve.
One of my favourite wildlife artists is Carl Brenders who uses a technique which includes the use of airbrush.
My airbrush was hiding in a dark corner of the attic so I rescued it, brushed off the cobwebs and tried to use it. Having been ignored for so long it flatly refused to allow any paint through the nozzle. However several hours of coaxing, bullying and finally taking it to bits restored function.
I started by painting in some of the dark fur in sepia watercolour then blocking in some colour using the airbrush. The next step was starting to paint in the fur using gouache which is the stage I'm currently working on.
I'm not sure how much longer I can resist completing the eyes.

Harrogate Autumn Flower Show

I spent last Friday, Saturday and Sunday exhibiting with Made in Yorkshire at the Harrogate Autumn Flower show.
A big thank you to Tracey, Ollie, the other exhibitors and the visitors for making it a really enjoyable weekend.
I didn't feel that it was quite as busy as previous shows and wondered if some potential visitors had been put off after the car parking nightmare at both Spring Flower Show and the Great Yorkshire Show. At those shows the grass car parking had turned to mud resulting in many cars having to be pushed or pulled from the field.
Or possibly with the bad weather this summer people are forgetting about their gardens until next year.
I had a reasonable show with my best selling prints being the three graphite big cats which are now available from my website.
Click on the title to visit my website or email me at gayle.mason@gmail.com if you are interesting in purchasing or want any further information.

'Stolen Moment'

'Snow Patrol'

'Arrogance'

 The weather was reasonable right up to around 5.15 on the last day when it started raining. By the time the exhibitors were packing up the light rain had turned into a cloud burst. Unfortunately the car was a few minutes walk away. After the first journey the ground water I splashed through met the rain hurling down somewhere in the middle and left me completely soaked from top to bottom.
It was a rather miserable journey home.

Painting a Little Owl in Chromacolour

I'm back home from holiday but still feeling jet lagged. We had a fantastic time but it is always nice to come home, and then start planning for next year!

I'll be demonstrating for Chromacolour at Art Materials Live which is held at the NEC in November. I'm painting some small pieces to leave in various stages of completion to give people an idea of my technique with acrylic. As  paint really slowly I thought if I had a few different pieces I could work on over the four days I could demonstrate feathers, fur, eyes etc
This is a Little Owl from my own reference photograph, 8 x 6, chromacolour on mdf board.
I'm using a mix of raw and burnt umber, ultramarine blue, paynes grey and white for the feathers.

I will work this to completion because I need it for my solo exhibition which also starts in November.

Snow in Canada

I spoke too soon about the weather, on our first full day in Canada staying at Waterton Lakes it was cold and wet and there was a sprinkling of fresh snow on the mountains. However it cleared up later in the day so we went for a drive as it was getting dusk. We were lucky enough to see four
black bears, one with a cub and one strolling across the golf course.


The weather was sunny again today although not very warm until later in the day.
We drove the scenic way to Banff and got some excellent views of Bighorn sheep.



We got an upgrade to our hotel room and ended up with a two bedroom loft suite complete with two full bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen and a lovely balcony with window boxes which a humming bird visited. Pity we're only staying here for two nights.

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Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks

Yellowstone was fabulous we saw two different wolf packs, the Mollies and the Lamar Valley and a Grizzly bear. These were a long way off but we saw many more animals 'up close and personal' including coyotes, bison, elk and mule deer and many species of birds including cranes.

Glacier National park has spectacular scenery but we didn't see as many animals and birds, the highlight being a young mountain goat with an older female, it's mum perhaps.

Today we are going through Glacier again and on into Canada.
The weather has been perfect so far, temperatures in the 70's and 80's.
If I have Internet access I'll try to post more often.



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Holiday Time

I haven't got any new artwork to share but I thought you might like this photograph of one of Chester Zoo's lionesses sleeping as though ready to pounce.

I'm setting off on holiday on Thursday, flying  to the US and then driving into Canada taking in Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Waterton Lakes, Banff, Jasper and Vancouver before flying home from Seattle.
The camera equipment is already packed, less important things like clothes will typically get sorted tomorrow evening.
I will hopefully be doing some sketching, I will definitely be taking photographs and hope to post some on here during my holiday. We are spending the first few days in Yellowstone so I won't be able to post anything until the beginning of next week at the earliest.
I'll be back for the Autumn Flower show at Harrogate with some new art to share.

Red Maine Coon - Finished

'A Cat's Tale'

Mixed Media on hot press watercolour paper.

I was planning on adding a few more steps of progress along the way, but unfortunately my deadline didn't leave me time to stop and scan the stages.

Work in Progress A Red Maine Coon - Stage 1

I've decided to do a work in progress in a bit more detail, highlighting some of the stages I go through to create a portrait. This will be a fairly large mixed media work. There will be no background other than a shadow to ground the cat so once I've drawn the outline and main fur clumps on my paper I start to select the colours.
I'm working on Arches hot pressed watercolour paper.

1. Selecting the Colours
I make a fairly quick initial selection of pencil colours I think I can see in the cat and draw a small square of each on the edge of my paper. I remove this edge from the finished portrait but it helps me to see how the colours work on my support.

2. I compare my selected colours with the reference and discard any that don't work.
Tip - For a red cat I discard any pencils that tend to look yellowish as they end up giving the orange/red fur a greenish tint.

3. I select the colours for the eye and  complete it before moving onto the surrounding areas of fur.

4. If you look at the tail you can see I'm putting down a base of watercolour before adding the coloured pencil.

Maine Coon Cat on Colourfix

I've been working on this maine coon cat in between other things which is why it's going so slowly.
It's approximately 16 x 12 inches on colourfix paper.
I've been using an under painting in watercolour and then adding detail in coloured pencil using the same method that I did with the spaniel but I'm finding it a very different experience to working on watercolour paper.
I thought it might be useful to compare my findings using the colourfix against using a hot press watercolour paper.

Pro's

• The coloured paper provides a midtone which means fewer layers are needed to create the fur.
• Little work is needed to create a subtle background.
• White fur shows up against the darker paper.

Con's

• Both the watercolour and the coloured pencil sink into the colourfix requiring constant touching up.
• The rough surface of the paper eats the pencils and destroys brushes, it is advisable to only use old brushes.

I can get fine detail on both surfaces so that isn't an issue.

On balance I think I prefer working on watercolour paper so it will be back to the Arches hot pressed paper for my next work.

National Exhibition of Wildlife Art

'Ruffled Feathers'

The National Exhibition of Wildlife Art opens on Friday and runs to the 29th July at the Gordale Garden Centre, Wirral.
 My painting 'Ruffled Feathers' will be on show together with another 439 2D and 3D works of wildlife art.
You can see a list of all the selected artists here, and there will be an online gallery available to browse from the 13th of July.
If you are interested in wildlife art it is well worth a visit, plus as an added bonus on the 13th, 14th and 15th there are several free wildlife art demonstrations running from 11.00am to 4.00pm.

Link: NEWA