Finished at Last

I got the horse finished at last and sent on its sea voyage. I was really pleased with how well the varnishing turned out. I used a silk rather than gloss varnish and liked the slightly dull finish.

The grey squirrel hasn't been back to visit for a few days so I was pleased to see two of the young yesterday. One was really athletic and ran up and down our two silver birches, jumping easily from one to the other. The other plodded up the tree realised the gap was too wide for a jump and sort of slithered back to ground level, crept across the lawn pretending it wasn't really there and struggled up the other tree. Obviously tired it then sat there for the next hour while it's sibling played at teasing the dogs, running about and stopping frequently to swear at them. I could see that it's mother had taught it well.

I have bought some of the new Derwent tinted graphite pencils so will hopefully be able to share with you what they are like to use.

Just Horsing Around

Sorry I haven't been updating on a regular basis, life got in the way. I am going to try to update at least every other day with something, even if it is a photograph rather than artwork.

The dogs are all as mad as ever, although over the last couple of months we have noticed Saska is really showing signs of old age. On wakening from a deep sleep she often doesn't recognise us for a couple of seconds and does her best guard dog routine. But she still enjoys her walks and chasing her ball, sometimes now though she lets one of the others bring it back, she tells us she's training them in the art of retrieve.
Roxy got her first rosette at a Championship show last Sunday, she is starting to look a little bit more mature. Sadly Rio is quite small still and we do wonder if he is going to grow large enough to be shown. He isn't worried though, and likes staying at home with my sons, who spoil him when Roxy is away.

The squirrel has had to be put on one side while I sort out my entries for the Fine Line Artists latest exhibition.

The theme of this show is 'Portals' and it is taking place in June at the Jitterbug Cafe & Roasting Co. in Ontario, Canada.

We have all interpreted 'portal' in a different way which should make for a very interesting exhibition.

For my first one I decided to use portal as being a doorway, in this case a stable door.

Only ever having drawn one horse before I am finding this quite a difficult challenge, however he is looking more horse, and less frog like now.

I am using my Ampersand Pastelbord, it is 30 x 40 cm and is the sand coloured one.

I have used coloured pencil, then Zest it solvent on the background. The solvent really saturates the colour and makes blending very easy.

ampersand pastelbord
coloured pencil
horse drawing
Zest it

Living on the Edge

I'm lucky enough to have a quite a large garden which is visited by a wide variety of animals and birds.

We buy bird food by the sackful in the winter to stock our feeders, which as well as attracting many birds also attracts the grey squirrels.

I know many people regard these as pests, but we don't have the native red squirrels in my area so I don't need to feel bad about being fond of my grey's.

One female squirrel who I think is feeding young, is particularly tame and feeds right outside my window. She is easy to photograph and after I had taken several nice shots of her I decided it was time to put pencil to paper.

I intend to call this 'Living on the Edge' partly because she is balanced right on the edge of a feeding dish, high above the ground, and partly because they are in conflict with man throughout some of their range.

I need to add here that the collies are much less fond of the squirrels, and tell me in no uncertain terms that I should let them out to play with them. In turn the squirrels have come to recognise the dogs can't reach them and stand there making rude squirrel gestures.

I have recently received some new paper to try. This is Mellotex which comes in various weights and shades of white.

I ordered the 340gms as I like a fairly heavy paper and this is ultra white.

After my Meerkat I am still in graphite mode so decided to continue to use graphite with the addition of Graphitints.

The graphitints are made by Derwent and are watersoluble coloured graphite. They can be used dry to give a hint of colour, or wet if you want a brighter effect.

They are manufactured in 24 colours but not all of them are lightfast so I restrict my use of them to the ones classed as lightfast.

The size will be about 18 x 14 inches and I am using a HB mechanical pencil and graphitints in cool brown, dark indigo and cloud grey.

Feeling Old but Pleased

Well today my eldest son is 18, a milestone for both of us. To think of my baby boy (good job he doesn't read this) as being a young man has just added years onto my official age.

At times over the last couple of years we have wondered if we would make it to today, as we have both faced serious health issues.

But, following major heart surgery my son is hopefully as good as new, and following the completion of treatment for cancer I pray I will be around for a long time to come.

So, although having an 18 year old makes me feel well and truly middle aged, I'm truly grateful that I am here to have those feelings.

Tonight we will be going out for a family meal and celebrating a new phase in all our lives. We are now moving on from computers and car envy, to girls and car owning, which is a whole new worry. He does seem to do things the right way though, as he has recently changed his car but kept his girlfriend.

On the art front, I worked really hard this week and finished both Rio and my Meerkat. I decided for the print of my Meerkat to go with Sepia which I thinks adds a little bit of warmth.

So here are:-

'Puppy Love'

'Sentry Duty' aka 'Does my Bottom Look Big in This' original

'Sentry Duty' print

I am going to start a squirrel in graphitint later today, (before the celebratory wine) so will share my progress with you.

Does My Bottom Look Big in This?

I was showing the progress of my Meerkat to my cyber chums, and my friend and fellow artist Katherine Tyrell came up with this title "Does My Bottom Look Big in This?". I have to say that looking at his pose it fits him really well. So it is now adopted as the official working title.

For all things art have a look at Katherine's blog, Making a Mark

Anyway here is the progress of my Meerkat.

And a close up.

I've been giving Roxy some individual attention lately as she was starting to rely on Rio to protect her from everything and anything. So we've been going on walks in the early mornings or evenings without the other dogs.

One evening we saw a stoat, it ran up and down the top of the wall next to us and then played hide and seek peeping in and out of the stones. Unfortunately my interest was much greater than Roxy's who watched for about two minutes and then decided to act like the stoat. She hurled herself about at the end of her lead until we were both tied in knots and the stoat had got bored and continued on its way.

Here are a couple of views from the 'stoat walk' including Roxy with Roma in the background.

Rio in Repose

I'm having a break from graphite, so my Meerkat is waiting in the wings.

This is Rio at four months, just after the splint was removed from his jaw, his expression says it all.

It is coloured pencil on sand coloured Ingres paper, about 14 x 12 inches.

I am working much faster than usual, not aiming for as many layers, but to capture his expression. The last scan represents about 3 hours work.

Wild about Graphite

Every now and then I get cravings, in my case not for food, but for the humble pencil.

I can just sit down with my pencil and start to create.

I mainly use a 2mm clutch pencil made by Staedtler, just occasionally changing to a 0.5mm lead for very fine detail. I mostly use a HB lead, but do add darks with a 2B, even sometimes going as far as 6B in the eye. If I use a 6B I always then go over it with a harder lead to dull the shine.

I decided I wanted to do another wild animal piece so had a look through my photographs.

This Meerkat is from one of my own images, I take many Meerkat photographs as I love their funny little faces.

We had a trip to the Zoo at weekend and the Meerkats posed for me.

My drawing is about 12 x 8 inches, on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper. I really like Arches paper as it is smooth but can take plenty of graphite. The only slight disadvantage is that it is a touch cream coloured, which makes reproduction a little more difficult than if it was a bright white.

There is more at the bottom of the picture but it doesn't fit on my scanner.

I'm in Love

It's true, Spring has arrived, the dogs are frolicking and I've fallen in love, with Ampersand Pastelbord.
Ampersand have some very interesting supports on offer and their website is well worth a visit.
www.ampersandart.com

Several of my fellow Fine Line artists have already used this support and liked it, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I could not find a UK supplier so had to use the US firm Dick Blick's mail order service. I have always found their service to be excellent, but you do have to be aware that on top of postage and packing there is the added import tax to pay.

I ordered small pieces in grey, white and sand and a couple of larger pieces of white.

I am wanting to paint some wildlife pieces so I decided to use one of my own reference photographs of a cheetah. The small size will be preparation work for a larger painting at some stage.

Here are the stages in the creation of 'Aloof' size 5"x7", coloured pencil on Ampersand pastelbord.

You can use solvent such as Zest-It on the pastelbord and it gives the most brilliant colour saturation.

The great advantage of using pastelbord is that the work can be varnished and framed without the need for glass.

Mother's Day Family Portrait

As it's Mother's day here in the UK we took my mum out for lunch, and then went to her house so that my son could install her new printer.

The pups came with us, so I took the opportunity of taking a family portrait while we had Zeus on hand.


Jorja wasn't all that keen on sitting with her grand children, but we did persuade her in the end.


So left to right, grandparents Zeus and Jorja, pups Rio and Roxy.

You have to forgive Zeus his ears, as he's got older they've gone straighter, and he's nine now.

The pups are six months old on Friday and they're going to their first show next weekend, that will be fun.

Quick Updates

I've been really busy this last week which is why I haven't updated my blog.

Friday was Crufts day for Juno, and although he didn't get a place we had a most enjoyable day. We did receive the photo's that he had taken after winning his class at Midland Collie Club. The copyright belongs to SN Cards but I have permission to post them. I love this photograph and happily for me, Mr Newton has given me permission to use it as a reference for a new Juno painting.

I have done a little more on two of the three cats.

First the drawing one.

Then the acrylic one.

Update on Acrylic cat and Van Gogh Tree

Well I finally did something for my Van Gogh project as February slipped into March. I did beat the deadline as I finished it at about 10.30pm on the 28/02.

Don't get too excited because I'm not sure you will see much relevance to Van Gogh in my drawing, but I will explain.

So, meet my Hawthorn inspired by Van Gogh.

So what on earth relevance does this have to the work of Van Gogh:-

1. It took me so long to generate the little enthusiasm I had to do it that I felt rather like tearing off my own ear.

2. I used marks to draw it, I appreciate these are not the much larger more defined marks that VG used, but it is a definite change from my usual style.

3. Apart from the tree it is all done from my imagination.

4. I resisted the very strong impulse to add a sitting cat, that would definitely not have been in the spirit of VG.

So there you are, the closest I will get to VG, although I have to say I do now have a great respect for his work and did in the end enjoy drawing my little scene.

My acrylic cat is moving along nicely, here are a few updates.

I might not get much painting done over the next two days, it is the British Collie Club's Championship show tomorrow and we are showing Juno, so today is preparation for tomorrow.

Beginning, Middle, and another Middle

I don't know if it's the time of year but I cannot settle to finishing a project. I now have four 'in progress'. You have seen two of them, another one is a graphite drawing of a meerkat, but he only has an eye done up to now, so isn't worth meeting yet. The fourth is an acrylic painting on canvas, of yet another cat. You wouldn't believe that I'm actually much more of a dog than cat person.

I decided I wanted to do a painting rather than a drawing for a change, as I do feel that rightly or wrongly, some buyers prefer to purchase a work on canvas. Anyway I wont need to put it under glass it works out.

It is 11 x 14 inches, Liquitex acrylics on canvas and the cat is slightly larger than life.

As always I did the eyes first, bringing them more or less to completion, then started putting in some tones. I have to tell you this is my way of working, I cannot work the whole painting at once as recommended in most 'how to' books.

There is more of the cat than shown in my scans.

Just to show you the latest progress shots of my other projects.

I really will finish these before I start anything else, poor Van Gogh, that means I have to leave you again.

Lazy Days

The weather was nice for a change last weekend so we decided to take the puppies on a different walk.

We live close to Bolton Priory, a ruined Augustinian monastery on the banks of the River Wharfe which always makes for an interesting walk.

On this occasion though, we decided to walk from further down the river at Barden towards the Strid. The Strid is a short stretch of the river where the water is forced into a deep narrow channel, well worth a visit when the river is in spate. It is said to get its name from being a stride wide, but you don't want to try it out as over the years fatalities have occurred there.

This is the view from Barden.

Roxy and Rio enjoyed the different scenery and the many cuddles they got from different passers by.However they had to remain on their leads as they are not yet to be trusted on the recall, and there was stock in the fields.

Rio soon tired of lead walking and closed his eyes pitifully every time we stopped to admire the view or take photographs of the many trees. We decided not to go as far as the Strid as he complained we were making his legs shorter with all the walking, so we turned round and strolled back to the car.

Roxy however remained enthusiastic until the end.

The kitten painting I'm doing is at the stage where I need to look at it for a few days before moving on, I need to make sure I have the background right.

In the meantime I started another drawing of two sleeping cats. This is colored pencil and acrylic on blue pastel paper, round about 10 x 8 inches.

I am pleased with the progress so far, you do have to be aware that the colours are not quite true to life, the scans were not quite right.

Procratination

I am still struggling to get started with my Van Gogh project for this month although I have taken some photographs of the trees I intend to work on.

Everytime I sit down to start, I find some displacement activity to involve myself with. Most of these activities involve clearing up after two very bored puppies who want to be playing in the garden. It is so wet here though, that they are forced to spend most of their time inside. which leads to trouble with a capital T. Juno is so fed up with them leaping on him that he simply flattens them if they come within reach of his furry paw. Roma has disowned them completely and confided that she would like them adopting. Personally I'm inclined to agree with her.

However in order to do something productive I have done a small series of ACEO's. They are all done with Coloured Pencil, the first two on black colourfix, the third on black pastel card.

The first one is sold, I will be listing the other two on eBay later today.

Water, Water Everywhere

Van Gogh had to be put on hold over the weekend as we had a flood.

A pipe in the cupboard where I keep the dog towels, dog bedding etc decided to explode. Now you probably think this is an exageration, but if I tell you my eldest son was soaked to the skin in about 60 seconds as he tried to stop the deluge will give you an idea of the force of the water.

Of course my husband was out and I couldn't turn the water off. In the time it took for me and Rob to change places, the water was coming through the ceiling, gushing from the light fittings and running down the walls.

To make matters worse I had been in the middle of making a chicken curry for lunch, and never ones to miss an opportunity the pups managed to eat the vegetable skins and half the raw chicken.

Saska and Clinton were horrified at this disruption to their morning and retreated from the chaos to the peace of our bedroom. The other four took up vantage points and helped us, by tripping people up, getting into the water etc.

I think they rather like the idea of having a permanent waterfall in the cupboard.

Drying things out is taking considerably longer than wetting them did, but at least the pups had no side effects from their rather unusual lunch.

I did continue with my kitten, I have darkened the background to make him stand out more but much more work is needed on it yet.

Progress on my New Cat

I went to visit the Spring Fair at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on Tuesday as my Limited Edition Giclee prints were on display there.

The Spring Fair is:

"The UK's largest retail exhibition, twice the size of any UK competitor, and
"The largest showcase of British designed products in the world"

I am represented at the trade shows by the K2 gallery and it looked as if my prints were selling well, so fingers crossed for a successful week.

Back to new work, here are the updates on my latest cat

Juno and Van Gogh make their Marks

I admit the two things aren't really connected, I just wanted to comment on them both in the same post.
Juno went to his first show of 2007 yesterday, Midland Collie Club Championship show. He behaved perfectly and won his class, Graduate dog for anyone interested. He is still looking slightly immature as he is at the 'teenage' stage, but I was very pleased with him.

This is an earlier photograph, but he had a professional photo shoot yesterday so hopefully there are some nice shots to follow.

Being self taught I intend to use 2007 to have a look at different artists, mainly Old Masters, although I might sneak someone very much still alive in the pot.
The aim is to look at an individual for a month to try to discover more about their working methods, and then see how I can incorporate something from them into my own work. A little touch of informal, formal art education.
This is a project that I am undertaking together with other members of my online artist friends, Fineline Artists .

In January the artist chosen was John Singer Sargent. Although I didn't participate if you are interested in him have a look at the following blogs.
Maggie Stiefvater
Katherine Tyrrell and
Nicole Caulfield.
All these members of the group produced a work based on something they had absorbed from the work of Sargent, all are well worth a read.

For February the artist is Vicent Van Gogh.
The following fineline artists are all taking part in the projects:
Katherine
Maggie
Nicole
Wendy

My initial research left me feeling unmoved by a lot of his work, I really found it difficult to relate to most of his paintings.

One I found that I really do like is 'Starry Night over the Rhone'

http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0474.htm

However, during his short career he produced a large number of drawings, and these did inspire me. As my own personal struggle at the moment is with creating realistic backgrounds in my work, I have decided to study Van Gogh's landscape drawings, in particular the ones that include trees.

I want to look at how he created the marks that made his trees look solid and fit into the wider landscape. I also want to keep in mind that a lot of his drawings were preparatory work for his paintings. It was a revalation for me how much preparation Van Gogh did, I always thought his paintings were completely spontaneous. I guess that is the first thing I've learned about him.