Friday, January 28, 2011

Herdwick Sheep on Alston Moor




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....

Friday, January 21, 2011

More shell watercolours






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.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

a dead leaf...


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.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Botanical illustration course - roll up, roll up

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!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

3 views of Bowland/Happy New Year!







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.