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

Monty the Spaniel - Finished

'Monty'

I have completed 'Monty' the spaniel and have the first giclee prints available.
The total worldwide print run will be 350 but I'm splitting that into two print sizes.

Large Print
Total Available 99, numbered 2 to100
Image Size approximately 9 x 12 inches
Mounted/Matted in polar white to 16 x 20 inches
Price £40 plus post and packing £4.00

Small Print
Total Available 250, numbered 101 to350
Image Size approximately 7 x 9 inches
Mounted/Matted in off white to 11 x 14 inches
Price £25 plus post and packing £3.00

They will be available from my website from next week but if anyone wants one now or more information please email me gayle.mason@gmail.com
Next week I'm going to give write a post about how I get from the original to the print.

Spaniel Continued

I've continued to work on the spaniel. I know his fur is looking a little bit too neat but I'll rough it up at a later stage.
I intend to paint quite a lot of the bodyas I want to avoid the 'floating head' look.

Spaniel in Mixed Media

I started a painting of a spaniel while demonstrating at the Patchings Art Festival.
First of all I added watercolour using a barely damp brush and then picked out detail in coloured pencil. The size is approximately 16 x 12 inches and it's on hot press watercolour paper.
I found that the addition of the watercolour really speeded things up and also created a really soft fur effect, I'll be using this technique again.

Thanks to all who came to talk to me at Patchings and also those that bought my work. It was lovely to see old friends and make some new ones. It was also nice to come away inspired after seeing work from so many talented artists.

Patchings Art Festival

I've been to Nottingham today to set up my stand for the Patchings art festival which starts tomorrow.
The festival runs from the 14th to the 17th of June and is open between 9.30 and 5.00 Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 9.30 to 4.30 on Sunday.
If you are visiting the festival come and say hello.

Link : Patchings Festival

Tawny Owl in Mixed Media - Final Stage

'Ruffled Feathers'

12 x 16 inches, mixed media on watercolour paper, painted from my own reference photographs.

I'll put my owl to one side for a few days before I make the final adjustments. Now to go and finish the snow leopard and the other owl.

Graphite and Coloured Pencil on Drafting Film (Polydraw)

I've been experimenting with doing a graphite drawing on one side of drafting film and then turning it over and working with coloured pencils on the reverse side.

This is the start of the graphite drawing. I used harder pencils 4H, 2H and just added a little B in the very darkest areas because the softer ones would smudge on the polyester surface.
I drew in the cat's eye and some of the surrounding fur making sure not to smudge the graphite.
Once I'd done a couple of inches of I turned the drafting film over and started working in coloured pencils.

You can see the graphite showing through the area not yet worked in coloured pencil. The graphite acts as a grisaille and has really increased the contrast of the piece.
Because the graphite is on the other side of the drafting film it doesn't smudge and muddy the colours.
One thing I need to keep in mind for next time is that I need to draw the graphite image in reverse so that when I turn the drafting film over I'm working the right way.
The final image is replacing the white backing board with a black one, a mid tone will work better but I can't find one at the moment.

Tawney Owl Continued

I've continued to work on the tawny owl painting slowly down the body. I decided the tail feathers looked hard to work out so I'm leaving those for last.
I'm thinking about adding the stump in graphite as I don't want to take the focus away from the owl. I'll have a play in Photoshop before I decide.
I've decided to do a series of owls as I have some nice reference photographs of both the barn and little owls.

Snow Leopard in Graphite

As well as the graphite pheasants and the watercolour owl I'm working on a large drawing of a Snow Leopard.
The reference is my own photograph that I took several years ago at Marwell Zoo. The design of the cage meant I could stand directly in front of the leopard to capture the whole animal. The lighting is good which you will be able to see better once I get a little more drawing done.

Garden Birds

I haven't really done much more on the owl so I thought I'd post a couple of visitors to my bird feeders.
For the past two days a pair of Bullfinches have been taking seeds from the feeder. The male is much shyer than the female and tends to hide in a bush, dash out and get a seed and fly back in the bush. The female is much less timid and sits on the feeder eating seeds for quite long periods of time. I did manage to get a couple of them together but didn't dare open the patio door so the photograph is taken through glass.

We also have a small flock of Redpolls and Siskins that visit usually two or three times a day, these have become quite tame allowing me to get some nice reference photographs. This is a male siskin with some seeds in his beak making him look a bit odd but showing his lovely bright breeding plumage.

A Very Wet Harrogate Flower Show

The weather at Harrogate Flower Show was dreadful, I think I've developed webbed feet and possibly pneumonia. Despite that I had a really good show and enjoyed exhibiting with Made in Yorkshire for the first time. I found the whole set up very professional and the other exhibitors very friendly and helpful which made the experience much better than it could have been.

I worked on the pheasant although my hands were so cold most of the time not much drawing got done.

Harrogate Flower Show

I'm continuing to work on my pheasant in between printing cards and prints ready for Harrogate Flower Show.
I have to set up my stand tomorrow and the show runs from Thursday the 26th until Sunday the 30th. If you visit the show come and say hello, I'll be in the Made in Yorkshire marquee working on my pheasant.
Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is better than the forecast.