A feast for thrushes

Walking through the wood I just happened to glance down at the ground  through the blackthorn bushes and saw an unusual sight..... hundreds of broken snail shells  in  a very small area, about a couple of feet square .  They were all a similar colour and size and had obviously been a food source for a very busy bird, perhaps a thrush or a blackbird.

 

When I showed my husband he made the comment that it was a prime example of optimal foraging which apparently means that one or perhaps two birds  have been feasting on yellow snails to the exclusion of everything else.  By the looks of it there won't be many more left now......

 

I've always loved thrushes so I'm sad that there numbers are reduced but hopefully there will be at least one or two well fed member of the species in Gidding Jubilee wood.

 

Watercolour and pencil sketch, first stage

 

Working hard at the coal face - wonder if they like garlic with their snails!

More Grasshoppers

I have been looking at winter colours today and while I had the paints out made a few more very quick sketches of the grasshoppers:

Kingfishers at night? Really??

 

I've been working on an idea for an abstract print but it isn't ready yet for the rest of the world so I've revisited an image I originally worked on earlier in the year - the kingfisher.  Somehow it seemed appropriate after drawing the feathers and I wondered how often someone finds an iridescent blue kingfisher feather.  How wonderful that would be and I would spend a very long time studying them if ever I was ever lucky enough to find one.

 

 

Lino print and watercolour

 

I know kingfishers aren't seen at night but mine has decided to see what all  the  fuss is about and have a chat to the moon....perhaps the fish will be sleepy and more easily caught?.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lino print and watercolour.

I shall do more work on this image as I want to give the water some definition and improve the

cloud formations

 

 

 

Lino cut and watercolour

 

 

This one is an extravaganza  of colour because, after all, that's what kingfishers are all about..... 

More Moth Sketches & Notes

 
A couple of pages of notes about the gorgeous colours and patterns of some of the moths. 

 

Eyed hawk moth and Elephant hawk moth.. very beautiful things.

Sketchbook Watercolour  8 x4

Mixing media

 

 

 

Having decided on the image of the blackbird , I wanted to portray it using different media, and decided on watercolour and acrylic. It was to be an exercise for me, to see how the same image would change because of both the medium I used and  how I decided to use it. You only have to sift through a brief amount of work to see the wide  range of ways people use oils, acrylics and water colours. We all have our own ideas but these can change as the opportunities and perhaps restrictions of the medium we use become obvious to us.

 

 

Acrylic on canvas 30cm x 40 cm

 

This image is just the start but I will  give myself time to stand back from it over the next week or so and think about the next step. It's easy to get impatient with work when you aren't happy with it but I find that sometimes I just need to step back and allow myself to absorb the image for a while before making any alterations.

 

 

Watercolour 30cm x 38cm

 

This is a work in progress, the tonal values need to be worked on which I think will  give it more life and energy but again, that will come as I absorb it and move onto the next stage.The interesting thing is that this work feels completely different from the acrylic painting but it's almost identical in design ........

 

I'm determined that they will both be finished so......watch this space!

Still mouse

Glad to report that our brave little mouse [or mice] is still running the  gauntlet and although I know many people dislike them, I have rather a soft spot for them.  I thought about the media I should use for my next piece of work and realised that the clear soft colours of watercolour might help to soften the negative emotional affect that is often associated with our furry friends.

Watercolour 20 x 20cm

 

I'm still working on the mouse  print  and this time the image will be to a  controlled by the  process in a very different way. The lines will be more distinct and a very important part of the design whereas the fluidity of the watercolour means you have to be prepared to let go of that control and see where the paint leads you......

 

Easton Panel Sections: No 3

For some reason I am not keen on these two towers, but it was a section I picked in the draw. So here is a try. I might do another one if I have time. This time there are 2 little swallows high up on the right hand side.The swallows are such a feature of Easton in the summer. Maybe I will feature them again in one of the other sections.

Easton Towers watercolour A4

Easton Panel Sections: No 2 : The Chestnut Tree

The next section was rather unprepossessing, and nobody really wanted it, but when I looked at it a little closer I realised the main dark tree shape was one of the magnificent Horse Chestnuts. That’s lucky really as it gives me the opportunity to make another Chestnut Tree image for the Tree Following project, as well as make a pen and ink drawing.

This time I incorporated a rook and three distant red kites. The last time I was at Easton I saw them flying high above the chestnut trees.
We see them here too. They sometimes float silently over the garden or tumble and soar far away over the distant woods . They move so fast they can be miles away in minutes

The Chestnut Tree with Rook and Red Kites. A4 pen and ink

Easton Panel Sections: No1: Blackbird on path:

My lovely Easton Walled Gardens painting group are working on a joint project for our Easton Show this year. The Show will be called “A Portrait of Easton” and will showcase two large panels about 6ft x 3ft. One is a collage of aspects of Easton, flowers, gardens, architecture, etc. The second is a photo. We we have divided up each panel into 24 sections which has worked out at 4 or 5 sections each. The show is at the end of August but there is so much happening that I am dedicating this week to getting my bits done.

It’s a great opportunity to try a few different approaches and having these small photo sections to explore, with the images already there is interesting and rather liberating, its comes down to interpretation.

So No1 is a section of path at the bottom of the photo panel. The path is lined with flowers but there is a plain section on the middle. While working on this image I felt a blackbird would fit in just fine. I am particularly fond of blackbirds and have used them quite a few times in work about my garden here.

Bird on the Path: A4 watercolour.

The Blue Hedgehog

On Saturday we went to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It is so many years since I was last there and I had forgotten how rich and wide ranging the scope of the museum is.
I found many more wonderful beasts from all over the world, but the best of all was the small blue Egyptian hedgehog.
We do love our hedgehogs  but I had no idea that the Egyptians revered them as symbols of regeneration.

In the subdued lighting of the gallery the hedgehog has a certain mystery. The museum’s record, brightly lit and with its measuring scale and all the chips so evident is not quite so magical.

Fitzwilliam Museum photo

Faience hedgehog
Tomb 655 Beni Hasan Egypt
length 6.25 cm
width 3.75 cm
Twelfth Dynasty
Middle Kingdom
Date 1976 B.C. — 1793 B.C.

After a bit of research I found quite a few other  Egyptian Hedgehogs. Most surprising is the real and long eared Middle Eastern hedgehog.

This little chap is from Iran: photo Berkah.13.Kookherd from Wikipedia

A quick internet search shows that some ancient hedgehog figures do have long ears.This little faience amulet is from the Pelizaeus Museum  Hildesheim.

from the Global Egyptian Museum

My initial sketch of the short eared Fitzwilliam Hedgehog more as I saw it, in the tomb like low light of the museum display.

 

Hopefully a print and more sketches to come…

A Cute…ah no….a Coot Chick.

The coot chicks are quite odd looking and not exactly cute. Dark and fluffy in the main but with an extraordinary punk hairdo. Long yellow hairs make a halo round its red and orangy head. It’s mostly bald around its eyes and beak.

 

 

Sketchbook Chick with its yellow hairs and red bald face..but I guess its Mother loves it.Watercolour 6x4 inches

A couple of years ago I wanted to return to using scraperboard. It’s a great medium for black and white and I had illustrated various things in the past using the technique. That was some time ago, when you could get wonderful professional grade white scraperboard from Essdee. Sadly that is no longer available and what they sell now is thin and yellowy with a greasy texture. However in the UK that is all that is available. “Ampersand” scratchboard from the USA is better.

 
The scraperboard and sketchbook

At the time I was trying to get used to the new stuff and made a few trial pieces including this little coot chick. I had abandoned it because of the horrible quality on the board, but today I thought I would get it finished. It’s really a test piece, so perhaps not as well thought out as it could have been but I am going to give scraperboard another try.

I was equally fascinated with its spiky hair back then!

Coot Chick  scraperboard 4 x 5 inches

Canal Coot

I am just back from a wet but wonderful trip to Amsterdam. In between the showers, the museums, the galleries, the cafes, the bars and the markets we did a bit of canal side strolling Near the Rijksmuseum, sections of the canal have been planted with floating platforms of water plants, just a few feet from the bank. This is apparently a scheme to provide nesting sites for coot, moorhens and other canal birds. It seems to work.
This coot was particularly annoyed by the arrival of two ducks and rushed into the water  ferociously chasing them off. I did not get an action shot but here she is returning to her nest.

She was not over impressed by our presence either because she is, of course, protecting a chick or two. I could only see one peeping above the foliage.

Coot chicks with their red spiky featherless heads are not the prettiest “Ahhhh” factor baby birds, looking more like mini vultures,  but I am going to see what I can do this week. Some sketches, maybe a print.

The coot I see here at Grafham are shy and rather secretive. Their feet are wonderful.We see them scuttling across the lane sometimes but on the reservoir shoreline you can see them slowly  searching for food with their strange hesitant gait. 
This is a sketch from last year…

I am very fond of coot. More sketches etc to come.

Bee and Flower

It’s mid way and the drawing of the White Dead Nettle flower is more or less compete. The leaves are deeply veined but this is not a “botanical” drawing so I don’t feel the need to draw every one of them, just give an impression of their complexity.

It’s a time to assess the weight of various areas. The black bee and the two bugs are the main focus but I need some more weight at the top left. I am going to add some straight lines for an indication of the strange silver birch trees that form the background to Holme Fen and will add the distant bird hide which you can see when you look towards the wood from the info centre where the white dead nettles grow. maybe even a Highland cow.

 

On the board..image about 10 x11 inches . Watercolour and pencil on Arches HP 300

A Blog Break for Easter

Happy Easter to you all.
Sue and I are having a couple of weeks off. I have some commercial work to do but will be back on the 28th April.
And, as spring really gets going, there is so much gardening and belated spring cleaning to do. Hopefully the odd Easter Egg will arrive too!

Meanwhile an Easter chick! A little moorhen sketch from a few years ago. Just a ball of fluff with big feet. Some things may be different in Florida but the moorhens are just about the same.

Good intentions......

I had the best of intentions to finish this week's blog with a print of my kingfisher but I realised that it wasn't a good idea to rush the process as I am trying something different this time.

Using mixed media I hope to produce an image which will be interesting and different from reduction or multi block prints but as this is a new process for me I need to take my time on it.  In the meantime, I wanted to share some images I've used as research for the project, one watercolour and some pencil sketches of Kingfishers in flight - their body shapes are just amazing....

 

A wary little Kingfisher ....in watercolour

 

 

 

 

Pencil sketches of the birds in flight

 

The shapes of the wings are very beautiful and remind me of humming birds as  they hover in front or over their selected flower. I've never seen a kingfisher hovering over the water but if a suitable perch isn't present, they will hover over the water to observe their prey.

 

I was pleased to read that both parents share the incubation of eggs,  which can take up to  3 weeks and another 3 weeks plus for the baby Kingfishers to fledge so they have their work cut out for them.

 

 

Closer sketch of a hovering parent, eager to find some food for hungry babies....

 

I'll continue with the lino print and have the finished picture ready next time.....trust me!

The Beautiful Adder

My Beautiful Beast for this week is the adder, fascinating secretive and much maligned.

A brief description: A stocky snake which is usually around 2 ft long.

Males tend towards a grey, whitish, occasionally yellowish colour. The contrast with the black markings can make them appear almost silver. The females tend to be brownish with considerable variation of shade and occasional hints of red or yellow. The heavy dark zigzag pattern runs down the back with dark spots in rows on the flanks. At the back of the head there is a heavy “V” or “X” shaped marking and a dark band running from behind each eye.
The head shape is notably different from the other British snakes being rather broad and angular with an upturned snout.
The eyes are large and tend to be reddish in colour with a vertical pupil – again a feature unique to this species in this country.

from Add an Adder site, part of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation trust (ARC)

As part of our Beautiful Beasts work Sue and I are working on something of Fenland theme as we live on the borders of the Cambridgeshire Fens. Adders were once quite common there but not much loved.There are some grisly stories from the Fens about the treatment of and superstitions surrounding adders. The adder rarely escapes with its life.
See my post on P&L, Adders What’s not to love? for a bit more adder info.

But I don’t think I want to go down the superstition route for my work which just perpetuates ignorant dislike of this lovely creature.  Perhaps pattern, perhaps habitat, perhaps a pleasing design, perhaps basking in the sun which is what I wish I were doing right now.

Initial sketches.

 

Watercolour Sketches looking at pattern and camouflage.

I used a very simple adder for  my first Japanese style woodcut.I am hoping to develop that a little more this week.

Under the Skin 4: Lucy’s Skull & a Tiny Corset

Generally I like to find things for myself but have not been lucky enough to find a deer skull. Then my good friend Lucy found one and kindly gave it to me. It is fabulous. I have been wanting to draw it for months so I am very glad now to have the opportunity. 

 

Sketchbook studies A4

Watercolour start with model

Lucy’s Skull

Watercolour study on Not paper 8 x12 inches

 

Gouache study. 8 x 10 inches.

The Tiny Corset

One last study of a small broken skull turned upside down. I just caught sight of it on the floor as it was lit by the low angled sun, with its beautiful long cast shadow. It took a while to draw as it’s very detailed. As you draw things you tend to see connections, repeated organic shapes and similarities to other forms. It hard not to if you spend 2 hours staring at something. The more I drew it, the more it looked like a great design for a corset. A tiny fairy one.

 

Upside down skull. pencil 4 x 2 inches

I have so enjoyed the bone drawings this week and I intend to make some more finished studies of the skull.  Thank you Lucy!

Under the Skin 3: Something of the Rabbit about it…

As I walk round the reservoir I pick up all sorts of odds and ends and am always very excited when I find bones. I found this flat single bone with tiny teeth some time ago.  It was with a small cache of other bones at the base of a favourite willow tree.

Initially I was not sure what animal it belonged to, but there was something rabbity about it. So I am guessing it is a rabbit’s jaw. It looks more like a rather curious 2 dimensional foot

Pencil study of bone and a stray bit of grass. Image size 4x4inches

Watercolour study: 4.5 x5 inches

 

Drybrush watercolour: 3.5 x2.5 inches

Saddleback Pigs

My next page of sketches for Chris’ Salute the Pig blog. They are so very design-y..with their smart black and white colouring.

Chris has written about them here; “ Fattening Fast… 

 Sketchbook pages A4

On the board…

Watercolour on Fabriano. Image 10 x 8 “

Pigs… Beautiful Pigs

My partner Chris started writing a blog about pigs, Salute the Pig  a little while ago. He likes pigs but also likes pork so as a part time project we look for local ethical pig breeders and pork producers. Happy pigs are our first requirement.
So far we have met very happy pigs and very caring pig farmers. It has been a delight and we are looking at the different breeds of pigs as we go.
I have been doing some sketches with an idea of something more finished later in the year and to date I have sketched The Gorgeous Curly Coated Mangalitzas,  see blog post: "The Complete & Utter Gorgeousness of Pigs Ears" with their amazing curls.

 

Check out those ears!

The gentle and rare Lops. See blog post “The Big British Lop Pig”

And the feisty Duroc. See blog post “A Gorgeous Ginger Pig”

Sketches in pencil, pen and ink and watercolour in A4 sketchbook.

You can read much more about these pigs and pigs in general over on Chris’ blog

It’s time for the next pig, so for my Beautiful Beasts week I am going to be looking at the very smart Saddleback Pigs and pigs in general.