Janet Mary Robinson | Artblog

A Burns Day Neep

2012-01-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Burns Day here's a sketch of a turnip, which in Scotland is called a neep. (As in haggis, neeps, and tatties). Said massive turnip was grown by my Dad, who's really quite keen on giant veg. I still remember the humiliation of me and my sister being photographed for the local paper 20 years ago or so alongside one of Dads prizewinning giant cabbages. Later when I was at college in Dundee our ceramics teacher asked us to bring in some vegetables to use as sculpture models, but my carrots were dismissed as being too scary due to their post-apocalyptic appearance.

A Borders View (Clearfelling)

2012-01-10T14:08:00.001-08:00

Firstly, a very Happy New Year!
This promises to be an exciting one, certainly if doom everywhich way you turn adds that much needed spice to your life. But regardless of what else happens in 2012 and beyond, painters will continue to paint. Painting is a pathological disorder, and as a lifelong 'sufferer', I find myself particularly drawn to, (or rather drawing), beauty in the outwardly most damaged of places. Such as this oil sketch of the clear felled hills on the road to Moffat, in the Scottish Borders. We often take the A701 on our way to or from 'home' in Fife, because it is nicer than the motorway, there is good food to be had*, and most importantly of all there are bleak hills, bog, mist, windmills and forestry plantations... A landscape painters paradise!

Conifer plantations are not native in Scotland. They were mainly planted between the 1950's and 1990's, for softwood timber production. Little light penetrates to the forest floor and they support very few other species. When the trees mature they are usually clear felled. I'm interested in painting such landscapes because they are so striking and yet so overlooked, empty, devoid of animal life and human interest. It's a landscape which is so obviously ugly, scarred and damaged and yet really quite beautiful. If this isn't enough of an excuse, I also think forestry plantations in Scotland, or at least the practice of clear felling, will die out sooner or later, as it is becoming uneconomical in the face of competition.

*At the Buccleuch Arms Hotel

Solstice in't Woods

2011-12-21T06:27:00.001-08:00

Happy Solstice!

This acrylic painting is of the winter sun rising through beech woodland by Jumbles Reservoir, Lancashire. It was a beautiful fairytale scene, to which some have implied my painting adds a certain 'Grimm' factor to...! However, read it as you wish; it was meant to be magical.

I love the effect of light through trees; it's something I'm slightly obsessed by and often try to capture in photos as well as paintings. I took the two photos on Sunday when we were at a Solstice BBQ in some woods north of Lancaster. I climbed up a stalkers' ladder to take the shot of the Scots Pines.

Ahead of the storm

2011-12-08T05:18:00.000-08:00

We've just returned from four days dodging 'mini' storms on the beautiful Isle of Mull, before narrowly missing being stranded by the current hurricane force winds (also known as Hurricane Bawbag). I had many opportunities to paint my favourite colour. Blae is a Scots word, sorely lacking in English (well, for an art teacher it would be useful!), and it means slate blue/grey. The colour of storm clouds or a heavy sea.
I don't think I could ever tire of Scotland's west coast,* I'm spellbound by the colours, light and wildlife. On this trip I managed to paint outside once in a rare spell of calm, the rest of the time I peered through the tiny windows of our blackhouse or painted from memory.

Each morning I went down to the shore at Haunn with Ashby, where he occupied himself with the important task of fighting kelp and limpets. On Monday morning I came across an otter only 2 or 3 meters away, holding a large sea urchin. The strength of the wind was such it didn't notice me for a few precious seconds. It didn't notice Ashby at all, nor he it - just shows you can indeed see wildlife with a dog in tow particularly if the dog is glaikit enough. The sea eagles of Mull are not fussed by dogs, either, unless the dog in question is small enough to form a tasty lunch. After scanning the skies each day we finally saw two sea eagles yesterday morning, they flew right above us as we headed for the ferry. Pure white tails and a 2 metre wingspan - there's no way you could mistake them for anything else.

We stayed in a beautifully restored blackhouse at Haunn (meaning harbour), on Treshnish Point. See www.treshnish.co.uk/ I wholeheartedly recommend a stay there, certainly for lovers of wildlife. I'd been there before with my family 20 years ago, but nowadays there is electricity and running water! The farm has won all sorts of environmental accolades. In the last sketch, of Treshnish Point, you can see some little black blobs. They're the herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, who sheltered in a line from the howling winds.

* On second thoughts, yes, I can tire of the west coast in certain circumstances - I remember once abandoning a fully cooked dinner on the fire and spending all night hungry in the tent rather than face the midges any longer. And this was on the beach where the midges are usually less bad.

Lake Alaotra poster for the Ako Project

2011-11-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

This latest poster in the Ako series will hopefully be going to press shortly...that is assuming another species hasn't gone extinct in the meantime and needs to be edited out. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the finished illustration of the habitat and wildlife of Lake Alaotra shows two Madagascar pochards where originally there was going to be an Alaotran grebe. The grebe was declared officially extinct early in the summer, whereas the pochard is 'merely' critically endangered (through habitat loss). On the other hand, Durrell's Vontsira, the animal that looks a bit like an otter, or as Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust describe it; 'a scruffy ferret' was first seen only in 2004 and scientifically named in 2010 - the first new species of meat eating mammal discovered in 24 years. It will be interesting to see how long this species survives.

Dogs dogs glorious dogs

2011-11-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

I love dogs and I love painting dogs! It's very theraputic to occasionally paint extremely cute things like labrador puppies, and strangely satisfying to paint and then exhibit something that would almost certainly get you a 'Fail' in a fine art degree.
These acrylic paintings (10" x 10") are now for sale in Bellwood & Wright Fine Arts, Lancaster.

Pastel life drawing and Reverse Picasso

2011-10-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

When I overcome my dislike of their dry dusty feeling, I find that pastels are a great medium, especially if you love bright colours. I often find that the less I blend colours the better the drawing works. I tried to use the pastels tonally without caring so much about the precise colour. My brain usually stops focussing properly after about 3 or 4 hours, at which point I like to draw other people with superior concentration spans finishing their paintings; the sketch shows Milan Ivanic painting a portrait. The following day I saw the Abstruse Goose cartoon.

Cute lemur family and misanthropic rant

2011-10-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Finished painting the gentle lemur family into my latest Ako Project poster today (Lac Aloatra, in north central Madagascar) It feels like it's going slowly but I've not had so much time to work in my studio recently, compared to over the summer which was when I was meant to be painting it. It was held up because a key advisor in Madagascar was pursuing an armed gang of tortoise smugglers. The gang were caught eventually. This sounds pretty funny but rare species smuggling is a massive problem in Madagascar, and all over the world. As long as people want to eat lemurs, sharks fin, tortoises, or make medicine from bear bile or tiger bone, etc etc, the trade will continue, and it's all just so unnecessary. This needless cruelty and destruction is what makes me personally so angry; similar to humans choosing to eat animals produced by battery farming methods, or fish taken from the rapidly emptying oceans. I'm afraid I've become a truly embittered misanthrope. You can, however, just look at the cute lemur picture.

My lightswitches are black

2011-10-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

...but I spent a productive hour drawing a self portrait. I wanted to see whether the exercise I plan to set my class on Tuesday is actually possible in the time they have. Take a coloured pastel and smudge it all over the page, draw a head with charcoal, remove highlights with a putty rubber. Make lots of mess and revel in it. No hand washing allowed (well they can if they like, but there's no point). I remember someone once challenging me to eat a sugary doughnut without licking my lips, it's the same sort of thing. Fight against the urge to make everything neat and clean. Some people find that more difficult than others!

ps. If I appear somewhat peaky in this photo it is possibly linked with the fact I was at my friends most excellent wedding reception last night.

Cockroaches in Kendal

2011-09-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

Just been told my painting 'Rocky & Ruth, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches' has been accepted for Open Up North, an exhibition at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal.
This painting has come a long way.

In 2006 I spent just over 3 months in Madagascar, volunteering on various arty projects for NGO Azafady, and the Botanical Gardens in the capital city, Antananarivo. My biggest project involved creating and painting models of large scale extinct species, a kind of diorama, for kids. My studio was a little school house next to the Azafady headquarters in Fort Dauphin. I made friends with some of the staff, especially Lala, an amazing conservationist and wildlife expert. Lala was an invaluable source of information. For example, he could identify Bad scorpions and Good ones (mocking me for panicking after discovering the latter on my pillow). He waded through swamps with me looking for bull frogs, explained afterwards why it was a particularly bad idea to go for a wee in the rainforest (leaping heat seeking leeches), took me and a couple of friends out on a pirogue looking for crocodiles, in vain, until we got out and saw a large one that had been lurking underneath our leaky vessel...

Anyway, it was Lala who after hearing me complain that I missed my cat, presented me with two giant hissing cockroaches in a shoebox. I kept Ruth and Rocky, fed them banana, and sketched them. They didn't really offer much in the way of cuteness value, but Rocky at least made hissing noises if you touched him. Unfortunately, he escaped after only a week and I realised that actually, I only like giant cockroaches if I know exactly where they are. Rocky turned up eventually, clinging to the underside of the chair in my room. Having decided enough was enough, I tried to remove him, but didn't realise just how strong a cockroach can be... it really took some effort to prise him off. I'm fairly ashamed to say I then lobbed him in the bushes.

When I left Fort Dauphin, I smuggled out the old bit of hardboard I'd been using as a palette. Obtaining the paint for use in my various projects had been a bit of an ordeal. I had some colours flown out with gap year volunteers, but the rest was Malagasy, hand mixed out of noxious substances up a dodgy looking alleyway in Tana. Having little Malagasy or French, I struggled to explain precise colour preferences, and seemed to end up with an awful lot of brown. Over the weeks, my palette became quite interesting, with crazed blobs of colour. The day before I left I painted one last coat of my 'favourite' homemade brown paint, and chucked a handful of sandy soil onto it. By this point it almost certainly constituted a bio hazard. However, it arrived home safely, and I then painted a portrait of Rocky and Ruth onto it, so that I can remember my 'little' pet cockroaches forever.

Rocky and Ruth will be on display at the Open Up North exhibition venues from Sat 1st Oct- Mon 10th Nov.

Lune Valley

2011-09-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Went out walking and drawing yesterday with my friend Owen and obligatory pack of dogs along the Lune from Halton. We sat above the flooded river, wearing sunglasses, raincoats, and wellies (and in my case, suncream). But strong sunlight and heavy rain at the same time does make everything look bright, sparkly and dramatic, and the clouds were exceptionally good. I drew this using watercolour pencils and I used the raindrops to smudge it a bit. We both ignored the most obvious things in the view; a massively flooded river, and 4 large and irritating dogs.

Springtime in Eskdale

2011-09-15T02:07:00.000-07:00

This is the painting I mentioned in my last blog entry, 'Springtime in Eskdale' by James McIntosh Patrick. Image courtesy of Liverpool Museums.

Life drawing - September

2011-09-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

These are the two pieces that I'm most happy with from last Saturday's life drawing. I'm really working on not overworking paintings at the moment! and here I think I managed to retain some element of spontaneity. I've always preferred sketches to finished drawings, and drawing to painting, yet I love colour so much. So I suppose drawing in paint is my best option.

Today I visited the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. It's really good and I want to go back for longer next time as I only had an hour. I was so happy to find a McIntosh Patrick painting that I hadn't seen before, of Eskdale. James McIntosh Patrick, born in Dundee in 1907, was one of the best known and loved Scottish landscape painters of the last century. His paintings are perhaps nostalgic, but I think they are also timeless, they capture a sense of place so fundamentally.
When I was wee I thought of the print my Granny had above her mantlepiece as you might a favourite story; you know so precisely how it goes but nevertheless can always find something new.

I think it's finished!

2011-09-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of fun painting this off and on over the summer, but I have a feeling that it's finished. Deciding when something is finished has never been one of my strong points, often, things are finished about half an hour before I stop messing around. This painting combines areas of high detail with areas which are quite roughly painted, and which certainly could be worked into some more, but I think I prefer it the way it is.
I'm not done with the Australian bush theme, however; there's a few more in my head waiting to be painted.

Brown Hare watercolour sketch

2011-09-02T01:46:00.001-07:00

Hares are brilliant to draw, big gangly things with googly crazed eyes. Years ago a hare used to visit my parents garden. We called it Hector. He'd let you get so close to him you could literally step on him. I think he was very old, and possibly senile - certainly didn't act in a way likely to prolong his existence.
Where I live now is great for hares. If you walk through the flat fields on the Fylde Coast in late winter you're likely to see 50 or more.

Sofa Dwellers

2011-08-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

Not so much to report about these drawings, other than just how great ink is, both for drawing, and making your hands/house/dog black.

Some summer colour

2011-08-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Felt like we could all do with some cheering up, so here's some paintings of nice bright things...I am fairly proud of the fact I've succeeded in creating a back garden of flowers which actually clash.

The last two paintings are of bright purple aubergines, and a giant tomato. I bought them at a market in Vienna because I thought they were amazing. Haven't seen aubergines like this in the UK.

Orange bricks, grey sky: summer view of Galgate

2011-08-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

The new windows have been installed at the studio, and we're enjoying being able to see out properly. This watercolour sketch shows a view of the Silk Mill, orange bricks and standard issue slate grey summer sky. Wouldn't look nearly so authentic with a blue sky.

The other painting is a detail from the large scale acrylic I'm working on, showing Australian eucalyptus bush. The red birds are Crimson Rosellas.

New website for Ellel Artists' Studios

2011-07-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

So (finally) Ellel Artists' Studios has a website: http://www.ellelartists.org/

You'll see on the website that we are holding our first Open Studio weekend on the 3rd and 4th of September. It would be lovely to see you.

We will soon be getting new windows installed in the studio, to replace the ancient cracking and crumbling ones. The old ones look amazing but I can't say we will miss them, last winter the water froze solid in the kettle a few times! I took this photo of a summer storm cloud through the old windows last week.

Bush

2011-07-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

These pictures are of eucalypt forest in Australia, or bush - a totally underwhelming term for the reality of this plant lovers paradise. I found the colours, shapes, smells and textures unfamiliar and beautiful. Particularly the smell of the eucalyptus oil, I wish my paintings could capture that.

I'm thinking/planning a new painting, which will be large, tall and thin, based on these forests. I painted the watercolour from the balcony of my boyfriends' uncle and aunts' house, they live near Woy Woy on the Central Coast, which is basically unbroken forest and gorgeous coast a couple of hours north of Sydney. The second drawing was done recently, from memory and photos; recollecting particular trees and plants. The way that plants in Australia are adapted to fire is amazing. I particularly want to try and capture the feel of the peeling bark. We saw a lot of trees which had been burned, the most impressive were in the Blue Mountains. Enormous trees which are smooth white or silver grey underneath, with ribbons of cinnamon coloured bark hanging down. Even the photos make you want to reach out and touch them.

Recent life drawings

2011-06-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

The three drawings were made with charcoal and a putty rubber taking 5 mins (pink paper), 10 mins (blue) and 15 mins (yellow). I covered the paper in charcoal, drew in the main lines, then drew in the highlights using a putty rubber. The older and mankier the putty rubber is, the better; accrued dog hair and dirt gives added strength to it, allowing you to make sharper lines.

I spent about 2 hours on the painting, although I think I overworked it a bit. The 'brief' I set myself was to go back to basics and paint with just three colours, using it tonally rather than realistically. I cheated a bit and used two blues, (in order to get a nicer green), however, I like the colours a lot. I'm less sure about the finished picture, I took it home and stuck it on the mantlepiece for a while and realised it looks like an illustration for a Mills and Boons novel. Woops.

Challenging 'challenging' art

2011-06-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

A quote by artist John Keane in the June edition of the A-N Magazine:

"...Who is going to challenge the hegemony of 'challenging art'? I long for the day when a commissioned artist, out of sheer perverse bravado, might fill the lofty and intimidating Turbine Hall of Tate Modern with delicately crafted watercolours...'

Me too! Why is contemporary art only considered worthwhile when it is 'challenging'? Why is figurative art still looked down upon, undervalued - art which is based upon hard work and skill developed over years of practice and study? Why are artists who make a living by selling their work considered of less artistic merit than conceptual artists?

Jonathon Jones recently discussed this in his article 'Painted into a corner'. Worth pondering upon, especially if you are stuck at home feeling bitter with a cold and unable to actually paint!

A gleeful fiddle player

2011-05-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days I've been working on an illustration for a book cover - 'Joy Till Death' by Zsolt Staník. It's about the residents of a retirement home, some of whom form a band. This pen drawing shows Bert, a fiddle player, and I have been attempting to convey what was described to me rather awesomely as 'ecstatic, devilish, glee-type joy.' I love drawing expressions as I find if I am drawing someone smiling, it makes me smile - especially as I often use a mirror to try and work out the facial expression.

Life drawings

2011-05-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

Some recent drawings in charcoal and pastel.

Splatter Happy - Abstract paintings by Silverdale Art Group

2011-05-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

I was really impressed by the beautiful paintings produced at this afternoons workshop with Silverdale Art Group. The group was so enthusiastic - it's very rare to have an art class silent with concentration, and I always know the class has gone well when you have to wipe down the furniture afterwards! (Although, fortunately, the playgroup meet in the same venue so they can take the blame).

I also received the nicest feedback I think I've ever had: '2 hours of pure joy'

Thank you!

New sign/logo for Ellel Artists' Studios

2011-05-05T09:24:00.001-07:00

I've been having way too much fun this afternoon playing with ink spatters in Illustrator, designing a logo and sign for the studio. While I was away in Australia some charming child (well, I hope it was a kid) broke off my little handpainted palette sign. The new sign will be hung up high, out of reach.

A postcard from Australia

2011-05-02T07:34:00.001-07:00

I've just returned from an amazing month long trip to Taiwan and Australia. We were travelling around a lot, which didn't allow a great deal of time for drawing, but I had fun painting these tiny watercolour postcards. I painted this bunch whilst staying in tropical north Queensland, home to the Great Barrier Reef, and Daintree Rainforest - which at over one hundred and thirty-five million years old is the oldest in the world. Being a fan of most things green, and of things furrry (but not normally green and furry), this is a very good place to visit.

I found the forest itself utterly amazing - exceeding all my cliched expectations of what a jungle ought to be. Twisty loopy giant in your face greenness. (You can see why I am not a writer). I also found it very different to the rainforests of Madagascar, which are the only other tropical forests I have spent any length of time visiting. One very good thing about Daintree is that the national parks authority which manages the area have very helpfully provided boardwalks into certain areas, so that you can wander in as you like whilst minimising damage or disturbance. By walking quietly at dusk you can see a great deal, although we also went on a guided night walk.
In terms of what dwells within, it was also pretty darn good - while in Australia there are no primates, we found an abundance of other creatures equally exciting: crocodiles, forest dragons (a type of large lizard), bandicoot, a white tailed rat, various snakes, fruit bats, tree frogs, turtles, a striped possum, a red necked pademelon (similar to a wallaby), and many varied and stunning birds.

We also spent one far too short day snorkelling over the Great Barrier Reef. I have never seen so many species of brightly coloured fish, or indeed anything remotely like this. Coral reef is a very precious and endangered habitat these days, due to climate change and ocean acidification. I feel privileged to have seen this beautiful reef while it still survives.

Ako Project Posters - Masoala and Mantadia

2011-03-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

Images © Janet Mary Robinson and McCrae Conservation & Education Fund (2011).

These two posters are the latest two in the Ako Project series. If you've been following my blog you will have seen my posts showing the creation of the central illustrations; now you can see the final posters (although there may still be small amendments to the text).

The posters will now digitally wing their way to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, where they will be printed, and then distributed to primary schools and zoos all over the island.

I have the very exciting news that I am shortly winging away myself, with Johnny, firstly to Taiwan, and then to Australia, for a month. Yipppeeee! I can't wait to see lots of exciting new places, wildlife (and of course some of my 200 + relatives down under!)

Watch this space! I hope to post some drawings of platypus, or at least possums, before the month is out.

Spring Chickens

2011-03-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

It would appear that spring may finally have sprung! This watercolour is of two Black Rock hens - I often paint them but never get tired of the beautiful shimmering colours you see in their 'black' feathers. These lucky hens live an idyllic life in the fields next to our house. Fortunately, their owner doesn't like eggs (!) so you can buy them very cheaply from an honesty box. The eggs, like those from my Mum's flock, are a deep, vivid orange in colour, due to their varied diet.

If you keep hens, you soon realise they are far from the stupid creatures of stereotype; they have as much individual character as any other creature, and can be surprisingly intelligent. Which makes the fact that in the UK, battery farming is still legal and prevalent, even more shocking.

Birch trunk sketch

2011-03-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

This ink (Biro!) sketch is of nearby birch woods. There are lambs in all the nearby fields, so I've been going a bit further than usual on my dog walks lately. It was grey and rainy on Saturday, but the woods looked great; monochrome striped bark and boggy wet ground reflecting grey sky. It looked like a black and white photo. I didn't draw the sketch there, I took a photo on my phone and drew it back home while sitting on the sofa and drinking tea. Drawing plein air in March rain....nah

I've been looking at lots of other artist's drawings and paintings of trees and woodland recently. I really love this painting by Klimt in 1903, ' Birkenwald/Buchenwald (Birchwood/Beechwood).

The dog's life

2011-03-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

As Johnny is away at the moment, our dog Ashby has been spending large ammounts of time on 'our' sofa, specifically, in the hollow normally filled by Johnny. Ashby has his own sofa but prefers our (identical) one. I've been drawing him whilst watching rubbish telly - which means I have to go and sit on the dog sofa.

I find it interesting how uncomfy he looks a lot of the time. Whilst I have met many spoilt dogs, even a few dogs marginally more spoilt than Ashby, I have yet to meet one that could outdo him in it's capacity to look so woebegone and uncomfortable whilst lying on a sofa.

I've also included a drawing of Connie, the cat from next door. She has ADHD and possibly some sort of bipolar disorder, rarely staying still unless her fangs are locked into your wrist. This is the only sketch I've managed to complete.

an aubergine...

2011-02-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

I had a small panic last week because I realised I had no examples of pencil sketches to show the class I was teaching on Monday, other than drawings of lemurs, which I decided were probably not very relevant. So I ransacked the house for random objects with interesting texture and drew them whilst watching Ice Road Truckers on Channel Five. Genius programme.

I liked drawing the aubergine the best.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

Here is 'Blue Woman'. I painted her yesterday at a marathon life drawing class. She wasn't actually blue but I found it suited her rather well. I painted quickly in acrylic on blue cartridge paper, on a preliminary charcoal drawing.

Working on a non-white background is often very effective, for both drawing and painting. I find it makes me consider tonal values differently. You start from the middle point, and add shadows and highlights, whereas when you work on white you are starting from the lightest tones and always working backwards, as it were.

Barnacle Geese

2011-02-11T09:38:00.001-08:00

I saw a flock of these beautiful geese grazing on the fields by Ullswater in the Lake District. Barnacle geese are winter visitors to the UK, and they only come to certain places. The Ullswater flock is small, but huge numbers come to Caerlaverock on the Solway Coast, from Svalbard in Norway. Probably the Ullswater ones also come from Svalbard.

There is some really odd and fascinating folklore associated with barnacle geese. People used to believe that they hatched out of barnacle shells, or grew on trees, because they never saw them nest or hatch young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle_Goose explains some of the folklore in more depth. I love this engraving from 1552 which shows the geese growing and hatching from a tree.
Barnacle Geese.--Facsimile of an Engraving on Wood, from the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster, folio, Basle, 1552.

Down t'owd Mill: Photos from my studio

2011-02-02T11:55:00.001-08:00

I took these photos yesterday as the afternoon sun caught the west side of the mill opposite my studio. Winter sunlight can somehow lend a nostalgic quality to photos, it's also great to paint.

I still need some clog dancers, whippets, and a few child labourers to complete this über cliched Lancastrian vision.

Herdwick Sheep on Alston Moor

2011-01-28T11:22:00.001-08:00

For the Austrians amongst you. (So far every Austrian who has come to visit has been overwhelmed with excitement by the fact there are sheep, lots of sheep, here).

I can sort of understand their excitement, at the risk of being labelled, I too really like sheep! In fact I even have special favourite types of sheep. I love Shetlands, with their crazy, wild starey eyes and ability to jump fences. More like goats than sheep really. Blackfaces that you see in the Highlands are gorgeous, especially the lambs. Probably my favourite sheep of all time or at least at present though are the Herdwicks, which originate in the Lake District. I think...anyway, you see them pretty much only in Cumbria. They are basically teddy bears in the form of sheep.

Sheep are also fantastic animals to draw and paint, and Henry Moore would agree with me here. I've always loved drawing sheep, and somewhere at my old school I'm pretty sure there still hangs a large canvas 'Ewe and me' which I painted in my last year, my finest achievement in six years of Scotland's best education. Ha. Who would have thought ten years later I'd still be painting sheep.....cough....

More shell watercolours

2011-01-21T10:01:00.001-08:00

Shells are really pleasing things to paint, despite the fact that I'm never quite satisfied with the end result. I could do with the practice at the moment, having spent way too much time working on a computer lately.

a dead leaf...

2011-01-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

It was veeerry quiet in the gallery yesterday so I drew this dried up leaf of a Poinsettia. Great way to while away the time. Hope my boss doesn't read this.

Botanical illustration course - roll up, roll up

2011-01-10T14:11:00.001-08:00

I hope this might be of interest to some Lancaster based folk! My new Botanical Illustration class starts on Jan 25th. I really need 8 students in order for it to go ahead - if you think you know someone who may be interested, please forward it! If you click on the image of the flyer it will open at a larger scale in a separate window.
Note that anyone on benefits only pays £5!

3 views of Bowland/Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

These oil sketches are a bit late in arriving on the blog, as I actually painted them late last summer. The Forest of Bowland is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) located in north Lancashire, almost on my doorstep. Bowland is mainly barren gritstone fells , fringed with struggling stony hill farms, and lower down a jumbled mosaic of walled pastures. Lots of sheep, and the UK's densest population of hen harriers. As in most prolific, not stupidest. The light is beautiful, especially towards evening as the sun reflects off the Irish Sea. I have a theory that places near the sea have especially nice light. This is probably rubbish, or coincidence, however, I'm sticking to it.

Most people scurry past Bowland on the M6, on their way to the Dales, or the Lake District. A recent TV series may change this, though, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon visited Bowland in the extremely surreal comedy series 'The Trip' and then the Guardian wrote a follow up travel article for the NW of England. Come and visit, and buy some local artwork...

http://www.forestofbowland.com/

PS> One of my New Year's resolutions is to try to update my blog a little more frequently. Part time teacher training is sapping my writing power. Plants versus Zombies on my iPhone may be another culprit, but it's much more fun than writing about teaching theory, so I don't mind. I am trying to learn drawing on my iPhone but so far have no publishable results.

Ellel Artists' Studios - first painting!

2010-12-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

I painted my first picture in my new studio today! Ellel Artist's Studios is on the first floor of an ancient corn mill, 2 minutes walk from my house in Galgate. It has great light due to large windows down both sides of the room, but unfortunately those large windows also mean its a wee bit on the chilly side. I managed to work there for two hours today by putting a gas heater on either side of my desk. Ashby lay with his head so close to the heater I'm surprised he didn't singe his whiskers.
I'm currently on the lookout for other artists to share the space with. There's just two of us at the moment, but there's room for at least another two...

I'm painting some of the things from my shelf of 'stuff' - things I pick up when I'm dog walking, mainly. Sadly, moving house and country frequently in the last few years has meant that I've abandoned a lot of things, like my beaver chewed sticks from the Danube floodplain. But since moving back to the Pudding Islands I've already got a little coastal collection building up. Beaches are the best place to find interesting things. When I'm home for Christmas in Fife I'll pick up my skull collection. I left it in my old bedroom while I was living in Vienna. My parents will probably be grateful because they use the room for guests.

Does anyone know what kind of shell the bigger one is?

Mistletoe sunset

2010-11-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

Just been back to Vienna for a few days. In autumn and winter the mistletoe is so obvious silhouetted amongst the stark branches. It looks like baubles, or big round birds nests. This watercolour is looking across the Alte Donau as the sun sets.

High altitude rainforest illustration, in progress

2010-11-03T04:37:00.000-07:00

Work in progress. The illustration is to show the rare indri, the largest lemurs in Madagascar, in their mountain rainforest. They look like giant black and white teddy bears with crazy green saucer eyes. Every morning indri families get together and sing. This sounds charming but in fact their singing is more like a siren, and the sound travels for miles.
The illustration will be used on the sixth and final poster for the Ako Project environmental conservation campaign, http://www.lemurreserve.org/akoproject.html. The posters are used in schools all over Madagascar.
I'll update this post as the illustration progresses.

Masoala illustration finished...yay

2010-10-28T03:58:00.001-07:00

I had to make a couple of changes, if you compare it with the earlier versions (see a few posts down) I've changed the pool in the foreground to an inlet of the sea. As was pointed out to me, there isn't much point in keeping your dugout canoe on a pond when there's the Indian Ocean just round the corner...
It also makes more sense like this in terms of perspective and colour, I think.
Next I need to scan it, but that's a big job, because it has to be done in two bits and stitched together.

Right now I'm off to pack for a weekend in Devon : ) great, except for the awful drive down. Was thinking about when we were living in Vienna, if you drove 7 or 8 hours in any direction you'd get into at least one other country. Here, we get to pass Birmingham at just about rush hour.

Recent oil landscape

2010-10-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

I recently completed this oil landscape for my friend Giselle. She used to live near Galgate and wanted a picture which would remind her of the area. I cycled and walked around a lot looking and photographing, with enjoyment but little inspiration, until one morning I found this wall curving over the fields, and used it as my starting point. The painting is a sort of composite image of the upper valley of the river Conder, which downstream, flows right past Giselle's old house.

It's painted mainly using palette knives, which I love. The tone of the painting is deliberately quite flat, my main interest being in the shapes and colours of the fields.

Harvest Moon

2010-09-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

The full moon last Thursday (23rd) was lovely. Around the equinox you do seem to see the best moons, I'm not really sure why.

Cartmel Peninsula/Autumn

2010-09-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

A sketch I made yesterday from Warton Crag looking north/ north west across the Cartmel Peninsula towards the higher hills of the Lake District. I drew in white pastel, on a base of acrylic - if I ever have left over paint I just cover a page of my sketch book. It was amazing light; the hills were lit in parts by glimpses of sun which had escaped the dark clouds, creating small golden fringes and pools of light which contrasted with the darkness of the hills. Dark, because unlike most of Lancashire, or the UK for that matter, north west Lancashire and south Cumbria is still largely covered by woodland - hazel, birch, holly, ash, yew, rowan, elder, lots of berries looking beautiful at the moment. Today it's cold and wet, the heating is back on for the first time, Autumn has definitely arrived.

Illustration in progress...

2010-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

I decided that it might help me reduce procrastination time if I published work in progress; my 8 followers will be so breathless with anticipation that I will work faster. It's the central image for a poster about Masoala Rainforest in the north east of Madagascar. I'm painting it in acrylic, because I like the way it allows you to build layers on top of one another.

Alien

2010-09-03T13:41:00.001-07:00

End of the summer, and water margins all* over Europe are covered in a jungley mass of pink and white bloom; the 'Invasive Alien' is in flower. Impatiens glandulifera, or Himalayan balsam, is a much maligned plant that was introduced from Asia about 100 years ago, as a garden ornament, possibly to provide shelter for gnomes. It really liked Europe, and has now spread almost everywhere, usually along riverbanks.

I think Himalayan Balsam is the closest thing we have to a Triffid. It's so in your face, it grows in dense massive patches and easily reaches two metres tall or more, it has a weird pungent smell, giant weird knobby roots, and an awesomely effective reproductive technique - you just kick it or send your dog in, and the seed pods explode open, pinging seeds for a good few metres - enough to cross your average smallish river or road. I know, because whilst doing my Msc I was charged with the task of surveying and mapping it in the area around Lancaster Unversity. It's spread a lot since then.

If you research the species at all, you get lots of terms appearing like 'invasive, swamp, threaten, out-compete, out of control, rampant, non-native, stealing our jobs, eating our children...OK, maybe not the last two, yet, although unlike humans, it is evolving fast. It's reassuring to know that xenophobia is alive and well in the world of ecology.

It is true that Himalayan Balsam is incredibly successful, ecologically speaking - it dominates and is able to rapidly expand its range. But none of the reports I've read mentioned the fact that bees absolutely love it, and at a time of year when there are few other flowering wild plants, it is a haven for insects of all kinds. I also seriously doubt whether it has caused any extinctions. I suspect it's main crime is being a successful Asian.

If I ever exhibit with the RHS again, I will be showing a series of portraits of Aliens.

* Maybe not all, yet, for instance, I don't know if it's reached Iceland yet. I still got some kicking to do.

Little Cartoon Dogs Doodle

2010-08-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

There's nothing more fun to draw than little cartoon dogs. Anyone who loves dogs should try it. Dog's expressions are just so great.

Ashby has been stealing food lately, (he appears to be in a Naughty phase at the moment). The look on his face when he's caught trying to cram in an entire lemon cake is priceless - as is the happy look after a successful cake scrat (for some idea of it, see Top left dog).

On a separate note, it sometimes bothers me that, for an artist, I struggle to say anything meaningful about my own art. (For example: They're just little, cartoon dogs. On cardboard.) But I've been sorting through artists statements at work recently, and realised that artists divide into two kinds, the kind who are good at writing pretentious bollocks talk, and the kind who aren't. And the artists who are good at the silly statements don't sell any more art. This made me feel better. Mwuh huhu.
Now I'm going to work on my bollocks talk.

Hens

2010-08-09T04:29:00.000-07:00

Some watercolour scribbles of my Mum's hens - including Frodo the fluffy legged cockerel and the new chickens who are yet to be named. They're confined to a run at the moment, because a pair of crows are determined to eat chicken nuggets for tea.
Frodo is a fairly recent addition to the flock, named because he is tiny but with huge fluffy feet. He's only a third of the size of the Black Rock hens, and we were fairly impressed that he's achieved some offspring!

The watercolour below is a slightly more detailed study of some of the hens, painted indoors (as opposed to in the hen run)

Kely Masoala

2010-07-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

I was at kely (which means little in Malagasy) Masoala last week, a Madagascan rainforest in Zoo Zurich - an 11,000 sqm hall filled with authentic Masoala species - plants, birds, bats, lemurs.. even ants and termites which hitched a lift by accident, and are now thriving. Soil had to be imported, to allow the development of authentic fungi and bacteria, apparently this was the most difficult thing to get through customs.The project is only 10 years old, yet already gives an amazingly authentic impression of being in a Madagascan rainforest, and some trees are already 25 m tall. The planning of the hall took years, and it has been been designed to look as natural as possible. Speaking from experience, the whole thing compares very favourably, actually - no malarial mosquitoes, fewer spiders, no crocodiles. There are dugout canoes, but you're not expected to use them. Kely Masoala works in partnership with the national park in Masoala in Madagascar, and raises funds for en situ conservation and humanitarian projects, it also carries out a great deal of educational projects to raise awareness of Madagascar.

These are a couple of sketches I made, of a panther chameleon and tomato frogs. These frogs are endemic to the Masoala area of Madagascar, which is in the north east part of the island. They are pretty hilarious to look at, they really do look like sort of over ripe squashy tomatoes.
The chameleon was really slowly hunting, slow, that is, until it shoots out it's bizarre tongue, which must be at least 25 cm long. Malagasy people apparently mistrust chameleons because they look both into the future and the past at the same time.

Bend in the river

2010-06-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

This pencil sketch is of a bend in the little River Conder, through the fields near our house. I find that often the most interesting thing about drawing landscapes in pencil is trying to get the light right, in this case the strong afternoon sunlight on the field behind the trees. It helps if you half shut your eyes when you look at things. The experience was made more challenging by having to hold onto Ashby with one hand in case he ran off after the sheep.
I love this time of year. It's light here until about 10pm. On 21st June, I went up to Silverdale with some friends to celebrate midsummer. This is a photo looking north as the last rays of sun disappear into the hills. (and my friend Owen prancing around)

RHS Medal!

2010-06-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy today because my collection of seed related paintings won a Silver Gilt medal from the RHS. They're currently hanging at the NEC, Birmingham, at BBC Gardeners World Live. (You have until Sunday evening to see them!)
My exhibit was composed of 8 paintings of seeds, which are part of a Seed Alphabet I painted in 2008 and 2009 for Jelitto Staudensamen, a perennial seed company. There's one painting for each letter of the alphabet (except X - they couldn't find a seed named with an X). You can see all of the paintings at www.see-seeds.co.uk. They were painted with the aid of a microscope. There are also three larger drawings, pencil and pastel on paper that I stained with tea. These are of Teasel, Honesty, and an Opium Poppy. I used posh Austrian tea to stain the paper of the teasel (I was still living in Vienna), and PG Tips from Spar for the other two, interestingly I found the PG Tips has a far superior staining effect.
The poppy is on my home page at the moment, www.jmr.org.uk, and the drawing of Honesty is above. Looking at seeds through a microscope is really interesting, they look totally different to what you may expect. I was fairly enchanted to find out that poppy seeds resemble footballs.

The second painting of the pansies is the first study I ever made of flowers, a watercolour that I painted, aged 9, for St Andrews Flower Show. I think it actually won first prize. I remember being very happy that I won, but slightly embarrassed in case any of my friends found out that I painted flowers.

Green June rain

2010-06-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

This watercolour is of Caton Moor, the view from my studio in Hornby. The first proper rain we've had in ages made the bright green and newly mown yellow fields glow almost luminously, contrasted by dark steaming woods and hedges, and the mist on the moor merged into the sky.

Lune estuary

2010-05-18T02:38:00.001-07:00

This watercolour sketch shows the estuary of the River Lune, looking over to Sunderland Point. I painted it in half an hour on Saturday morning as the tide was, literally, racing back in. By the time I walked back, all the little muddy creeks in the salt marsh were filling up and the sand/mud seen in the painting had been completely covered. The coast around the Morecambe Bay area needs to be treated with a lot of respect.
Saw some cormorants, shelduck and black backed gulls. And a dim witted Banana labrador looking for fish. Ashby's been christened by the boy next door, who has a chocolate Labrador puppy.

Fife watercolour sketches

2010-05-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

Was in Fife visiting my parents this weekend and took my watercolours. The evening skies have been amazing over the last month, I'm sure because of the ash in the atmosphere.
Why do cats always cram themselves into boxes that are too small for them? Flora bulges over the edge.

View from an exam room

2010-04-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Its exam season and I'm doing some invigilating at Lancaster University. The other day I forgot to bring anything to read, but I had a black biro pen, so I drew the trees next to the fairly uninspiring building site out the window. It entertained me for a surprisingly long time, although I think I frightened the student just in front of the window. I was considering drawing the students but it would have been too obvious. I'm fairly pleased with how the drawing turned out. It sort of reflects the bleak atmosphere of an exam room, and my feeling which I've always had, whether sitting exams or supervising them, that what's outside the window is always of greater interest.
Maybe would have been better if I'd included the window frames - works better when seen 'framed' in the sketchbook.

I've had loads of really great bird encounters lately but unfortunately have not drawn any of them.
On the 1st of April I was walking by the River Wenning, just west of Hornby, where it meets the River Lune, and saw clouds of acrobatic swallow like birds, which confused me, as it was still freezing cold, and too early in the year for swallows. It turns out that they were sand martins, which return from their migration earlier than swallows and house martins. There are sand martins living all along this stretch of river, and this afternoon I spent five minutes watching them darting over the water catching insects, and popping in and out of the holes they nest in, on the opposite bank. They're lovely little birds and were zooming right past me.

On the 11th of April I saw a Marsh Harrier in the RSPB reserve Leighton Moss, which is about 15 miles north of here in the beautiful South Lakes. Marsh Harriers are quite rare, as they live in reed beds, which are nationally very scarce. They are a bit smaller than buzzards, and a totally different shape. Have a look at http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/marshharrier/index.aspx. It was circling round and round just above the reeds, hunting, occasionally diving down out of site. He (I think) was getting frequently harried by buzzards and crows, guess they don't get on too well.
There was also a couple of Great Crested Grebes, nesting just in front of the hide. Also really beautiful birds.

Finally, well, for this entry, we have a nestful of baby house martins, conveniently residing just above my study window. The babies screech and cheep every few minutes when they get fed.

Elm twig

2010-04-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

This watercolour sketch is of an elm twig, with its flowers. Elms flower before the leaves come out. This particular tree is a lovely large one, in a nearby field. I'd passed it several times but never before realised it was an elm - my parents were visiting and Dad identified it. I was recently reading about elms in Robert Macfarlane's lovely book 'The Wild Places'. He writes of how until relatively recently, elms used to be a really distinctive feature of the English countryside, as can be seen from old landscape paintings. John Constable painted many landscapes with elm trees. Elms were planted to mark waypoints, and lived to be hundreds of years old. This link shows a painting Constable made of an elm's trunk: http://tinyurl.com/y3hrczy.

Sadly, Dutch elm disease has decimated elm trees, and often the only ones left surviving are small ones, inside hedges. The beetles that bear the fungi causing the disease apparently target larger trees. Dutch elm disease arrived on the south coast of England in the late 1960's, in a shipment of logs from the US; and within ten years about 30 million died. Large elms are really scarce now. I think I will draw the Galgate elm tree later in the summer, when it is in leaf.

First sketch in the new house : )

2010-04-06T05:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter. We have just moved into our new house, near Lancaster, NW England. This is Johnny 'relaxing' with his iPhone after a hard evenings unpacking. And Ashby just relaxing.

Moving has been a fairly protracted event, as we drove from Vienna and stopped off four times along the way in Salzburg, Trier, Brussels, and Leamington Spa. Springtime had already arrived in Vienna, the Saturday before we left was a lovely 19˚C. I was playing with Vienna Pipes and Drums in the St Patrick's Day Parade, my farewell gig. It was also lovely weather in Trier, an old town on the river Mosel, near the border of Luxembourg. Unfortunately things degenerated from then on; we returned to the UK in time to experience bitter north winds and snow...

I'm renting some studio space in Hornby, and am currently setting things up. It's situated in a beautiful location in the Lune Valley, east of Lancaster. Just across the fields is the confluence of the rivers Wenning and the Lune. Hornby is situated close to the border with North Yorkshire, and as I drive there I get lovely views across the fells, including the prominent hill Ingleborough. Also a great area for wildlife, I've often seen kingfishers on the Lune and there have been recent reports of otters. : ) Some drawings coming soon.

McCrae Conservation and Education Fund

2010-03-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

I'd like to share this update of the Ako Project, an environmental education initiative in Madagascar. I've been working on commissions for the Ako Project since 2007 and the second page shows the four posters I have created thus far. They're being distributed to primary schools around the country.
I have a deep fascination for the island of Madagascar - it's biodiversity is astonishing and utterly unique (over 80% of species on the island are endemic). It's the only place in the world where new primate species are regularly discovered, and amongst the 99 extant species is the world's smallest primate - the 30g Madame Berthe's Mouse Lemur. Until as recently as the 1700's (the date of extinction is disputed) there were also giant lemurs (240 kg), larger than gorillas. These were almost certainly driven to extinction by humans, along with the endemic pygmy hippos, giant tortoises, and the worlds largest birds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aepyornis, which were over 3 metres tall and weighed 400 kg. The flora is equally amazing - with as many as 12,000 plant species - although many of the species, particularly in remote forested areas, have not yet been scientifically named. In Madagascar there are 6 species of baobab trees; only one is found elsewhere in Africa.

Sadly, Madagascar's biodiversity is under extreme threat. Over 95% of the forest cover has already been destroyed, and the situation is worsening. The Malagasy people are amongst the poorest in the world. The majority of the population live in rural areas and survive by subsistence farming, relying upon dwindling forest resources for charcoal, and for tavy, (slash and burn agriculture). Slow growing primary forest does not have a chance to recover, and when you fly over Madagascar what you see are endless bare mountains with giant red gashes where the soil is being washed away. Such land is no longer any good for agriculture. Life is incredibly difficult for most Malagasy. Access to a good education is almost impossible in most areas of the country, and as such there are almost no possible escape routes from poverty. People are forced to continue living in an unsustainable manner because they truly have no alternative.

Madagascar's nature reserves are also under extreme theat from illegal logging. Following a coup in February 2009 which saw the president of Madagascar replaced at gunpoint by the mayor of the capital city (a former DJ), most international aid agencies withdrew their support from the country and the nature reserves lost their protection. Gangs of armed bands, financed by foreign timber traders, went into the nature reserves and plundered the valuable hardwood such as ebonies and rosewood. A commercial bushmeat market has sprung up over the last year and a half. The tourism industry all but collapsed in 2009, with huge loss of revenue.

Sometimes it is difficult to feel any hope in the face of such difficulties, however, there are so many amazing organisations and individuals working to improve the situation.
If you want to help Madagascar, consider supporting:

UNICEF Madagascar - http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/madagascar.html
Azafady - http://www.madagascar.co.uk/
WWF Madagascar - http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/madagascar/index.html

In addition, consider taking a holiday in Madagascar. You will have a truly amazing experience, and you'll be bringing much needed income to the local people. Visit the national parks and private reserves. Eco tourism needs to be more valuable than illegal logging.
It's such a great country. The people are really friendly, (they quite literally will answer yes to everthing, simply to please you) and the whole country is, how to put it, hilarious. It's the only place I've ever been where travelling on top of a fridge freezer on the back of a pick up truck, with seven other people, is a normal state of affairs. In the south east of the country dug out canoe is actually the most efficient means of transport, despite the abundance of crocodiles.

I highly recommend a visit : )

Three pencil sketches

2010-02-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

I drew these while I was staying at my parents house in Fife. I like to sketch people when they're concentrating on something, although it doesn't always lead to the most flattering portrait. My Dad was drawing leaves while I was drawing him - he's taking a botanical art course at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and had homework. Dad got fed up of drawing the leaf and started to draw Johnny, who developed a nice scowl ; ), so I turned my attention to him.

Yesterday there was heavy wet snow blown by a gale force north east wind, and the cats were hibernating by the wood burning stove. Louis, below, likes to be the centre of attention so he posed very nicely for me. I used a 2B pencil, a putty rubber, and my finger for smudging. Really, this is all you need to make a very nice drawing.

Long eared owl

2010-02-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

Painted in watercolour and gouache. I was watching Futurama recently and noticed that in the future it is flocks of owls, rather than pigeons, which gather in the city streets. I'm looking forward to this. I'm fairly sure I saw a long eared owl in a forestry plantation near my parent's house in Fife, Scotland, - you usually see owls if you walk there late on a winters afternoon. But it might have been a short eared owl.

2010-02-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

I have a cold and feel utterly minging. What better time to paint myself?

Monoprint

2010-02-09T09:40:00.001-08:00

Monoprints are created by covering a sheet of paper with paint, then pressing another sheet on top and drawing or scratching it. Like when using carbon paper, the drawing is then transferred onto the back. I made this just because I had some spare paint, but it reminded me that actually it can be a really interesting technique. I used to do this at school quite a lot, I found it quite magical how a drawing is transformed into a print. It allows little room for error, as every mark shows - but on the plus side this results in a very spontaneous image. I think I might experiment more deliberately with monoprints.

Oil painting of rooks

2010-02-04T01:56:00.000-08:00

I've been working hard to finish some bird paintings for my series Flocks and Shoals. However, last week I found out that the restaurant/gallery where I was due to exhibit in early April is closing, so I'm considering my options. We also had some very good news - Johnny was offered, and has accepted, a job at Lancaster University in the north west of England. We'll shortly be migrating back north to Lancaster (we both studied there). The immediate future is still a bit unknowable, but at least I now know where I'll be based for a few years. Yay! I'm trying to decide whether to try and find another venue for my paintings in Vienna, or to find a gallery in the UK.
This is an oil painting I did last week, based on all my sketches of the rooks. I painted the whole canvas very dark (Prussian) blue, in swirling strokes. Once it was completely dry I painted on the sky using a palette knife and a stiff bristle brush, leaving the shapes of the rooks. I'm fairly happy with the painting, I think the shiny dark paint works well as interesting negative shapes. It doesn't photograph so well, but this gives an idea.

Martens Ate My Car

2010-01-28T04:20:00.001-08:00

This drawing depicts a family of beech martens, Martes foina, eating our car, a Skoda Felicia. Few people back home in Scotland believe me, but this is a genuine and frequently ocurring hazard encountered here in Vienna, and apparently in much of Europe - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_Marten Beech martens are actually only the size of large cats, and normally chew brake cables or spark plugs rather than dismantling the entire thing. Our car, named Crapbag, fell prey after only three weeks of living here, and unfortunately my third party insurance did not cover the car for being eaten.
I drew the sketch in pencil and added the colour in Photoshop.

2010-01-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

I drew this on a base of leftover oil and acrylic paint. I hate wasting paint so whenever I still have some on my brushes at the end of the day I paint it onto a random page in my sketchbook. I like drawing on top of paint, it adds some texture, and I also prefer drawing on non-white surfaces.
Ashby is feeling a bit wobbit at the moment (Scots for poorly/off-colour) as he cut his paw on some ice three days ago and it's taking a while to heal. He can only go out for short lead walks wearing a sock to keep it clean. He really doesn't appreciate the socks:

Frozen Alte Donau

2010-01-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

In winter the Alte Donau is covered with flocks of birds - black headed gulls, mute swans, coot, crows and Canada geese. Its really quite stunning, particularly when the lake is frozen and back-lit by the afternoon sun. I go there to walk Ashby and to photograph the birds - for quite some time I've been working (intermittently) on a series of paintings called Flocks and Shoals, and am always on the lookout for photo opportunities. I'm interested not so much in details of individual birds, but rather the shapes created by the winter sunlight and stark shadows, the reflections in the ice, and the swooping, crowding birds. Extreme hunger brought about about by the prolonged cold weather means that the birds literally fight to get to the bread and even without a very good zoom lens I can get really close up shots. I hope that the birds can last through the winter.

I made a quick drawing, sketching out in the cold and adding some tone back home. I personally prefer the photos but you can judge for yourself.

A fishy tale: Common carp, Cyprinus carpio.

2010-01-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

I made this sketch at Haus des Meeres, Vienna's aquarium, which oddly enough is situated within a WW2 flak tower (anti-air-raid tower).
In the summer you can see wild carp in the Donau-Auen National Park. This forest/wetland area is my favourite place in Vienna - part of it extends within the city limits. The first time I visited I cycled, alone, got utterly lost and couldn't believe all the amazing wildlife I found - as well as the carp there's beaver, lots of lizards, snakes, rare birds, turtles, amazing plants... I'll certainly be writing more about the Donau Auen and its inhabitants. The carp are massive and you can get very close to them, but for drawing them the aquarium is a lot easier.
In Vienna (also in Slovakia and Hungary) carp are the traditional food on Christmas Eve. In some places people buy them live from the market and keep them in their baths until it's time to dispatch them. A Slovakian friend told me that when she was young she liked having a pet carp in the bath and would cry when it had to be eaten.

Rooks

2010-01-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

Winter in Vienna is normally grey and freezing, but its pretty good if you like birds. In around mid October large flocks of rooks arrive from Russia, to overwinter in the (warmer!) climate. I find this interesting because in the UK rooks are to be seen in large numbers all year round. We live near the lake Alte Donau, an old arm of the river Danube, and the winter flocks of rooks in this area are sometimes really spectacularly large. The rooks spend much of the day foraging on the fields of the market gardens and around the parks, until about an hour before dusk. Then all the flocks head to Donaupark on the other side of the lake where they roost. Annoyingly, they seem to congregate just above a kiddy play park, where I don't really want to be found with a long lens camera and a large dog. However, whenever I get the chance I've been watching and photographing them, and I've done a few sketches.

The weather is very cold now and the rooks have been really noisy and active the last couple of days. This watercolour sketch is extremely simple, but I like its spontaneity, and it captures the fact that in this freezing weather, the rooks just appear as silhouettes against the white sky.

My first post - Happy 2010

2010-01-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

Hi! Welcome to my online sketchbook. I have no huge ambitions here - I plan simply to upload my latest drawings/paintings and maybe talk a bit about them and what inspired me whilst making them. I've been drawing as long as I can remember, working as a freelance artist for five years now. I couldn't help feeling it was a bit of a waste that the drawings inside my accruing stacks of sketchbooks may never again see the light of day - especially as, if I'm honest, I prefer drawing in my sketchbook to any other type of artistic activity. (Except carving Halloween lanterns). I draw quickly, and usually just in plain 2B pencil.

Ashby, my golden retriever cross labrador, along with my boyfriend Johnny, are the lucky people most often found gracing the pages. This is because they are aesthetically pleasing ; ) and found sitting around for long periods of time in our flat. Here is the first Ashby sketch of 2010:
Happy New Year!